Written By: Bob Colling
World Wrestling Federation presents RAW
Date: 6/20/1994
From: White Plains, NY
RAW starts off with stills from last night WWF King of the Ring pay per view. They just show that Bret Hart retained the WWF World Championship. Also, Owen Hart won the King of the Ring tournament and wants to be known as the King of Harts.
RAW opening video
Gorilla Monsoon and Randy Savage are on commentary on this live edition of RAW! This is the first episode where there is a Spanish announce team. Monsoon hypes up the show which will see Yokozuna in action and the 1-2-3 Kid squaring off against Nikolai Volkoff.
Opening Contest: WWF Intercontinental Champion Diesel defeated Mark Thomas in a non-title match: As expected, Diesel completely dominates Thomas. After a few minutes of delivering his trademark moves, Diesel connects with the Jackknife Power bomb to win the contest.
After the match, Diesel and Shawn Michaels celebrate the win.
WWF King of the Ring Report with Todd Pettengill. Todd goes over a few stills from the pay per view. Owen Hart winning the King of the Ring tournament is highlighted. Last night, Jim Neidhart helped Bret Hart retain the WWF World Championship as Neidhart attacked Diesel after Diesel power bombed Bret Hart. Neidhart ended up helping Owen Hart defeat Razor Ramon to win the King of the Ring tournament. Once again, Owen Hart wants to be called the King of Harts. The Headshrinkers retained the WWF World Tag Team Championship defeating Crush and Yokozuna. Also, Roddy Piper beat Jerry Lawler in the main event.
Second Contest: 1-2-3 Kid defeated Nikolai Volkoff to a earn a WWF World Championship match on 7/11: Volkoff shoves Kid down to the mat after rejecting a handshake. Volkoff with a double axe handle over the back. Kid comes off the ropes connecting with a cross body for a near fall. Volkoff shoulder blocks Kid and delivers a weak spinning kick to Kid’s chest. Volkoff lifts Kid up in the air and drops Kid down to the canvas. Volkoff with another weak boot to Kid’s chest. Kid with a sunset flip pin attempt but Volkoff kicks out at two. Kid spins kicks Volkoff into a corner but Volkoff is able to kick Kid back down to the mat. Double under hook over head suplex by Volkoff for a near fall. Kid with a rollup but Volkoff powers out at two. Kid with standing spin kick and almost wins the match but Volkoff powers out at two. Volkoff with a big boot and drops Kid throat first across the top rope. Volkoff drives Kid down with a backbreaker but doesn’t cover and instead delivers a second backbreaker for a two count. Volkoff sends Kid into the corner but Kid apparently blows out his knee. Kid fakes Volkoff out and rolls Volkoff up for the win! DUD
After the match, Volkoff attacks Kid. Virgil runs down to the ring and hammers away on Volkoff. Virgil turns to DiBiase but Volkoff attacks Virgil from behind. Lex Luger runs down to the ring and that causes Volkoff and DiBiase to finally bail from the ring.
Next week on RAW, Bam-Bam Bigelow will wrestle Mable from Men on a Mission!
Third Contest: Yokozuna defeated John Doe: Yoko ends the quick squash with a belly to belly suplex.
More stills from last nights King of the Ring pay per view are shown.
Before the next match, Yokozuna and Typhoon have a stare down on the aisle way. We see that during a commercial break, Typhoon nailed Yokozuna with a right hand.
Fourth Contest: Typhoon defeated Black Phantom: Typhoon wins the squash following a big splash coming off the ropes.
Back from a commercial, Jerry Lawler is standing in the ring for another edition of Kings Court. Lawler can’t believe Roddy Piper would bring his daughter down to the ring. Lawler believes that Piper’s “ugly daughter” distracted him and cost him the match. For the record, the person was a male and not related to Piper at all. Lawler is wearing sunglasses, covering up his beating, but says he doesn’t want to look at the fans. Lawler introduces his guest, Duke “the Dumpster” Droese! We see highlights from a Superstars program four weeks ago where Droese dumped trash onto Lawler. Lawler says that Droese stinks and doesn’t want Droese in his palace. Droese respects Lawler’s wishes and stays on the floor where their si a microphone for him. Droese tells Lawler that Lawler smells to bad for even Droese to deal with! Lawler keeps cutting Droese off from talking in this interview. Lawler is just insulting Droese’s odor for a few moments. Lawler gets a cheap shot in on Bret Hart’s family! Droese doesn’t want to stick around and begins to head to the backstage area. Lawler leaves the ring and attacks Droese! Lawler beats Droese down with the trash can until several referees come down. The cameras go wide to avoid getting a up close shot of the beat down!
Main Event: the Heavenly Bodies defeated Jim Powers/Russ Greenberg: Jimmy Del Ray pins Greenberg following a top rope moonsault to win a extended squash.
After the match, Jim Cornette proclaims that the Heavenly Bodies will be winning the WWF World Tag Team Championships.
Gorilla Monsoon apologizes for Jerry Lawler using the trash can on Duke Droese. We will never see that sort of thing ever again in the WWF, according to Monsoon.
A promo for WWF Summer Slam on August 29th in Chicago, IL is aired.
Backstage, Ted DiBiase says he has had his eye on Lex Luger for a long time. DiBiase puts Luger over as a fantastic talent. DiBiase wonders what Luger would be capable of doing with DiBiase by his side.
End of show
My Take: This weeks featured match between 1-2-3 Kid and Volkoff was just horrible. Volkoff should not be wrestling at this point. This is the NEW GENERATION of the WWF. He just comes across old and slow. Also, I thought Volkoff was suppose to be a baby face who was forced into his role with DiBiase. It seems like Volkoff has embraced his new role and is a full fledged heel.
The Lawler/Droese segment dragged a little bit as Lawler didn’t have much material on Droese, it seemed. I did like the trash can attack by Lawler as I didn’t expect that to happen. Apparently, neither did the WWF as they went wide quickly. The apology also made it clear that perhaps that wasn’t suppose to happen.
Lex Luger starts a feud with the Million Dollar Corporation. I wonder how that will play out. Maybe a Headshrinkers vs. Heavenly Bodies program coming, I can dig that.
Overall, a fairly boring and uneventful edition of RAW. For a live broadcast this has to be considered a letdown.
Thanks for reading.