Over to Monday Night RAW which had only just started airing in the UK for us Brits. Before that we got the heavily edited WWF Mania version. September was the build up to In Your House 3 (IYH3).
The concept here was simple. For the first time ever the WWF Championship, Intercontinental Championship and the Tag Team Championship’s will be on the line in the same match.
Diesel and Shawn Michaels dubbed the “Two Dudes with Attitudes” were to defend their singles belts against Yokozuna and Owen Hart, the reigning Tag Champions, in one match.
The weeks leading up to the event the focus is on whether the “Two Dude’s with Attitude” would be able to function as a team at IYH3. To make matters worse once it got to the main event Owen Hart was replaced by the British Bulldog . Then Owen Hart interfered or arrived late, depending how you want to look at it, and took the fall for his team. It seemed the Tag Titles had changed hands but it was not to be.
The next night the titles reverted back to Owen Hart and Yokozuna due to their attorney Clarence Mason declaring that Owen was not the legal man despite being the rightful Tag Champion.
Confused yet? Yep we were to.
It seemed like the guaranteed title change advertised at the PPV had been sidestepped and those paying may well have felt a little hard done by.
Elsewhere on RAW Razor Ramon, another of the new generation’s mainstay stars, was in a feud with teacher Dean Douglas, a wrestler who was grading Ramon in pre filmed vignettes. Bret Hart was feuding with former Quebecer turned pirate Jean-Pierre LaFitte. The pirate thief had stolen Bret Hart’s trademark leather jacket. Hart defeated LaFitte at IYH3 but to me watching as a fan it was clear that the WWF was more about Michaels and Diesel than The Hitman at this point.
At IYH3 Douglas defeated Ramon for the Intercontinental Title Belt with interference from Bob Backlund, Dean’s manager, and inadvertent interference from the 123 Kid.
This interference would be the start of a slow heel turn for the Kid and lead to a brief rehash of the Razor, Kid feud that had made the 123 Kid’s name.
The night after IYH3 WWF announcer turned president Gorilla Monsoon ordered Owen and Yokozuna to face the Smoking Guns. The Guns were be successful and RAW that night ended with Michaels and Diesel celebrating the win with the Guns. The audience got their title change all be it a day late and the fans were left believing they had seen something quite big happen on RAW. We were constantly being told anything can happen in the WWF and here it certainly did.
A special mention has to go to WWF’s undercard. Hidden under cartoon gimmicks were Al Snow as Avatar and a young Hunter Hest Helmsley – Who do you think that guy with three H’s as his initials went on to become eh? We also got our first look via vignettes at one of the first “edgier” WWF characters, Goldust.