This is the first Raw after King of the Ring, during which Bret Hart won the title but was attacked by Jerry “The King” Lawler who claimed there could be only one king. Also during the night, Yokozuna won the Heavyweight Championship from Hulk Hogan after some interference by a photographer that left Hogan unable to see. Today’s episode starts off with Mean Gene Okerlund interviewing Yokozuna and Mr. Fuji about their victory. Mr. Fuji tells us that he will be celebrating the win right here in America and as if that wasn’t bad enough, he’s going to be doing it on the Fourth of July! What an evil foreigner! Honestly though, I’m pretty sick of xenophobia being a major plot point. Hopefully we’re seeing the last vestiges of it.
Can't we just hate Yokozuna for being boring?
The first match of the night is between Mr. Perfect and L.A. Gore. The match is fine, but I get the impression they just scheduled a predictable match here so that the commentary team can recap the Yokozuna/Hulk Hogan match from King of the Ring, which is exactly what they do for the entire match. I assume this is so the people who didn’t order the pay-per-view won’t feel left out.
Afterwards we move on to one of the few storylines actually being developed. Razor Ramon, interviewed by Vince McMahon, tells us that he’s bumping the prize for the “1-2-3” Kid up to $10,000. To prove it, he holds up a sack with a big dollar sign on it that says “$10,000”. What is this, a Bugs Bunny cartoon? Did anybody at any point in history ever actually put money into a sack with a giant dollar sign painted on it? I guess Ted DiBiase and IRS already have a briefcase-full-of-money gimmick so Razor Ramon had to go with the next best option.
This is how you write "ten thousand dollars" in Spanish.
Next up is the Marty Jannetty/Doink the Clown match that we were promised last week. I have to admit, I wasn’t too keen on this, but Jannetty and Doink actually have an interesting and fun match. This makes me wonder if they’re going to start treating Doink like a real wrestler instead of a sideshow attraction. It’s worth noting that the match ends in a double countout, which I imagine was done so that Jannetty doesn’t have to lose to a clown. I should also mention that before the match, Doink sets up the double Doink gimmick but doesn’t actually execute on it which I like for two reasons: firstly, it makes the gimmick more unpredictable, and secondly, it makes him look stronger by showing us that he can beat real wrestlers without cheating.
Doink is just happy to finally be the big spoon.
We then move on to Dan Dubiel VS Owen Hart who’s back after a fairly long hiatus from the show. Much like the Mr. Perfect match from earlier in the evening, the final outcome of this match is also predictable. So to give the announcers something to do, they get the “1-2-3” Kid on the line to tell him about Razor Ramon’s new offer. The Kid is in Japan since it seems that beating Razor Ramon has thrust him into the limelight and he’s found himself in demand all over the world. The Kid decides he sure could use a whole sackful of money and finally accepts Razor Ramon’s offer. Their rematch is scheduled for the next episode, but for now, we’ll move on to our last match of the evening.
Remember when I said that Jerry Lawler attacked Bret Hart at King of the Ring? Well to add insult to injury, Jerry Lawler is in the final match tonight (against Mark Thomas) and he’s wearing black and pink, which everyone knows are Bret Hart’s colors. What a great heel move. As the match gets underway, the crowd never stops booing or chanting “Burger King” at Lawler. Just being in the building is enough to make the crowd hate him, but he makes sure to goad them even further. Lawler is easily the best heel in the WWF right now because he is absolutely unlikeable and he knows exactly how to manipulate the crowd into hating him even more by knowing when to call them idiots, when to act mad at their chanting, and by making sure to grab a mic after winning so he can rub his victory in everyone’s face. He may not have won the title, but he is the real King of the Ring.
The worst there is, the worst there was, the worst there ever will be.