Tuesday, April 30, 2013

Raw #95 - January 16th, 1995

One week removed from the big 2nd anniversary show live in Houston, Raw comes to you taped with the announcers standing in front of a green screen. Also, instead of Hakushi making his Raw debut like last week, Mantaur will make his Raw debut. Also, William Shatner makes another appearance. Not only is the "boy toy" Shawn Michaels there to stripper it up, but the Heavenly Bodies are in the ring to open the show with more overt references to male prostitution thanks to "Gigolo" Jimmy Del Ray. All in all, it looks like a stellar show.

Tuesday, April 23, 2013

Raw #94 - January 9th, 1995

Tonight, Raw hails from Houston, Texas for the first time for its second anniversary. Monday Night Raw pays tribute to the very first episode of Raw by not being very good! At least tonight, there will be an Intercontinental title match that will not include Max Moon. There will also be male nudity and William Shatner, who will be on King's Court tonight. The Star Trek star tells Lawler in advance to leave him alone, because he's only there to promote the new USA series Tech War. If the King wants a piece of Shat on this Monday Night, he's come to the right place!

Tuesday, April 16, 2013

Raw #93 - January 2nd, 1995


The first faces we see on Raw in 1995 are those of the as-of-yet unnamed Roadie and Jeff Jarrett, who promises to sing in public for the first time tonight. Shawn Michaels is back on commentary along with Gorilla Monsoon, who is filling for Vince. McMahon may be "under the weather," but Gorilla and Shawn are in front of a green screen. Ted DiBiase's music plays over the two announcers as The Million Dollar Man accompanies Bam Bam Bigelow and Tatanka for their match against the soon-to-be Allied Powers. Monsoon wonders if there will be gold coming to the Million Dollar Corporation, and there most certainly will, as long as you count Paul Bearer's urn as gold.

Tuesday, April 9, 2013

Raw #92 - December 26th, 1994


It's the last Raw of 1994, and tonight's episode kicks off with the British Bulldog against Lex Luger's arch-rival, Tatanka. Hey, wouldn't it be great if Bulldog and Luger teamed up? Shawn and Vince are once again our commentators for the evening and are joined briefly by Ted DiBiase and Tatanka on their way to the ring as if to prove that the announcers are actually in the arena tonight and not standing in front of a green screen. Raw's opening rolls, this week without Tyco's logo plastered over top of it, seeing as Christmas shopping has just ended.

Friday, April 5, 2013

WWE's "Superfan Showdown" on Facebook



WWE recently advertised a new Facebook game on Monday Night Raw, promising trivia, games, videos, and puzzles. And to be sure, the new, free app has all of that, plus lots and lots of mindless repetition. I know this because, to hype myself up for Wrestlemania, I started using the app.



Thursday, April 4, 2013

The Wrestlemania 29 Preview

It's that time of year again: Art0Donnell's first annual Wrestlemania Preview! So, scratch out that word, "again," okay?

Pre-show - Wade Barrett vs. the Miz: The lesson of this match is, if at first you don't succeed, try, try again, then challenge for the Intercontinental title instead. After what felt like months of chasing Antonio Cesaro's US title, the Miz has moved on to the Intercontinental title, which is basically the same thing. Cesaro's reward for having held on to the title since Summerslam is having the night off on the biggest show of the year. Both men are in WWE Films at the moment, so that won't factor into the outcome of the match. I predict The Miz will go over, based on his Nature Boy veteran rub and the fact that Barrett recently got kicked in the crotch by Triple H for no reason, perhaps in commemoration of his burial of Booker "Nappy Hair" T ten years ago.


Tuesday, April 2, 2013

Raw #91 - December 19th, 1994

Lex Luger enters the ring to kick off tonight's Raw in the cold opening. Shawn Michaels, who is a semi-regular now at the announce table, sports a Santa cap, as does Vince McMahon. A brilliant fan in attendance holds up a sign reading, "I cheat on my taxes." "Hey, look," says Michaels, "it's Joe Montana!" I can only assume that the 49ers quarterback is in some sort of tax trouble at this time. Fortunately, Vince explains the context of the joke (Montana is being investigated for a sports memorabilia business, but Vince insists that just because the government is investigating someone doesn't mean that the person has done anything wrong. Gee, I wonder why he would say that?), but not before expressing how appalled he is that Shawn would say such a thing. Hopefully no actual IRS agents are watching this episode, or else this fan might be getting some phone calls.

Monday, April 1, 2013

Introducing Art's cousin and the newest Wrestlecrap induction


In a special Monday induction, Art0Donnell's cousin KofiJ0hnson has penned a guest post on that most laughable of gimmick matches, the ladder match, specifically Shawn Michaels vs. Razor Ramon.