WWF Monday Night RAW

The SmarK Rant for WWF Monday Night RAW – 01.01.96

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The SmarK Rant for WWF Monday Night RAW – 01.01.96

Here’s a fun fact:  This show didn’t get added to the WWE Network until WAY after the fact for some reason.  So I never had a chance to do it when I was working through the RAW shows originally.  I actually went to repost the show for this morning to go with the last Observer Flashback and realized it was missing, and then checked and discovered I had never watched it!  In fact I don’t think I’ve ever watched this episode, period.  So this is totally fresh content for you, although Nitro is gonna be a repost, sorry.

Yes, it’s THE RAW BOWL!  The stepdaddy of the mack daddy of them all!

Taped from Newark, DE

Your hosts are Vince McMahon & Jerry Lawler

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The SmarK Rant for WWF Monday Night RAW – 10.06.97

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The SmarK Rant for WWF Monday Night RAW – 10.06.97

Vince McMahon opens the show, informing the crowd that Brian Pillman had died in his hotel room the night before, and we get a 10 bell salute with all the wrestlers on the stage.  And unfortunately that would only be the beginning of the tragedies to befall the Hart Foundation.

Anyway, this is of course the night after Badd Blood and the beginning of the end of Bret Hart’s WWF career.

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The SmarK Rant for WCW Monday Nitro / WWF Monday Night RAW – 10.09.95

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(Might as well merge the reposted TV rants into one column now.  Keeping them split into separate ones wasn’t doing any better numbers anyway.  Also, a reminder that these were written at times far apart from each other, in the early days of the WWE Network.)  

The SmarK Rant for Monday Night RAW – 10.09.95

Taped from Grand Rapids, MI

Your hosts are Vince McMahon & Jerry Lawler

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The SmarK Rant for WWF Monday Night RAW – 01.31.00

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The SmarK Rant for WWF Monday Night RAW – 01.31.00

The DX tank might have been the turning point in the ratings war, but this was the point of no return for WCW.  And all of a sudden, everything changes up in the WWF and the show hits a stride that only the XFL could kill.

I don’t even remember if this episode was any good, but I’m pumped!

I bet Shane Douglas and Konnan were pumped as well while they watched from home.  LET’S GO.

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The SmarK Rant for WWF Monday Night RAW – 09.25.95

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The SmarK Rant for Monday Night RAW – 09.25.95

 

So it’s the night after In Your House 3, when Shawn Michaels & Diesel supposably won the tag titles from Owen & Yoko, only to have Gorilla Monsoon to reverse the decision and force the new old champions to face the Smoking Gunns.

Also, they’ve overhauled the RAW intro.  Again.  Men fighting on the rooftops!  Pretty sure the shots of people running into the fences were recycled into the D-X entrance years later, as well.

Live from Grand Rapids, MI

Your hosts are Vince McMahon & Jerry Lawler

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The SmarK Rant for WWF Monday Night RAW – 01.24.00

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The SmarK Rant for WWF Monday Night RAW – 01.24.00

OK, let’s get back to WWF 2000 as requested.  I had skipped ahead a couple of weeks for the Dallas 10 man when we last hung out here, but that was missing a couple of weeks where some PRETTY important stuff happened.  To say the least.  So let’s head back to the night after Royal Rumble 2000!

Live from Philly, drawing a sellout 14359.

Your hosts are Jim Ross & Jerry Lawler

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The SmarK Rant for WWF Monday Night RAW – 08.21.95

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The SmarK Rant for Monday Night RAW – 08.21.95

(Oh man, after next week’s Observer Flashback I’m not gonna have a RAW rant to repost because of the tennis.  I’ll actually have to write stuff again!  However, the week after that you’re in luck, because it’s DOUBLE REPOSTS every week from then on!  And yet ironically the Monday Night War show I’ve been reviewing has been such a colossal flop that these reposts from 2014 are beating it handily.)

Ad Roulette:  It’s the WWE logo again.  Anyone want to start a betting pool on this?

This past week on Superstars:  Kama beats the shit out of the weird goth follower of the Undertaker as that storyline gets written off in one fell swoop.

Taped from Worcestershire Sauce, MA.

Your hosts are Vince McMahon & Jerry Lawler.

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The SmarK Rant for WWF Monday Night RAW – 08.07.95

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The SmarK Rant for Monday Night RAW – 08.07.95

So, randomly after weeks of breakneck additions to the RAW catalog, they just suddenly stop in August of 1995.  They didn’t even show the last couple of episodes before the break where Monday Nitro debuted!  Which is really weird because it’s not even the end of the taping cycle.  And according to those who know, there’s no plans to add the rest at this point.  So I guess I get to move onto something else.  What an incredibly strange programming strategy they have.  (Of course a couple of months later they filled in those gaps and now RAW is mostly complete from start until today and there’s a million OTHER things they need to fill in now instead.)  

Also, by popular and understandable demand, I’ve been paring down the writers on the blog tonight, and I feel pretty crappy about it. (That was rough.  But it was getting out of hand and actually it was becoming a security risk to have too many people with login access to the blog.)  

Taped from Louisville, KY

Your hosts are Vince McMahon & Jerry Lawler.

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