Talk about it here.

I remember this being one of the more awesome moments from the early days of RAW.

 

Bulldog turns on Diesle, HBK tries to make the save and Dean Douglas takes him out, Undertaker runs in and Mable & Yokokuna take him out him with fat guy leg drops, Jim Cornette running around directing traffic. Chaos & destruction everywhear.

 

If I remember corectly this was during the short period Bill Watts was booking and like a week later he was fired and they botched following up on this in any meaningful way.

Yep. Really terrific stuff. All of a sudden, the WWF was chaotic and unpredictable, people got involved with each other feuds. I don't know how much Watts could be credited for this, but it was a rare intense moment in 1995 that made you actually care about what happened.

I remember this being one of the more awesome moments from the early days of RAW.

 

Bulldog turns on Diesle, HBK tries to make the save and Dean Douglas takes him out, Undertaker runs in and Mable & Yokokuna take him out him with fat guy leg drops, Jim Cornette running around directing traffic. Chaos & destruction everywhear.

 

If I remember corectly this was during the short period Bill Watts was booking and like a week later he was fired and they botched following up on this in any meaningful way.

I think the part with Dean Douglas and Yokozuna came later, in October. I'm pretty sure this was just a 3 on 1 with Davey Boy and MOM taking out Diesel.

Ah you're right. I was confusing this with the 6 man that's later on in this set.

To start this off, Diesel is out for his interview. They show a clip from the previous week of Diesel vs Mo where Shawn runs to Diesel's aid after Mabel runs in. Diesel promises a win at Summerslam, and Davey Boy Smith comes out. Davey Boy mentions that Lex Luger (Wow, first time I've heard that name in a while) had a medical emergency and can't be there tonight, so he's free, and he offers to team with Diesel. Diesel looks positively huge standing next to Davey Boy. Anyway, Diesel accepts his offer.

 

Not a good move, as Davey Boy turns heel on Diesel -- the first time he was ever a heel, at least on a national stage -- and it's quickly obvious he's aligned with Cornette. MoM and Davey Boy put the beat down on Diesel.

 

We get a post-match promo from all the gloating heels.

Was that the last time Luger's name was mentioned on WWF TV until his famous defection?

I don't think so. Luger showed up at Summerslam. I'm pretty sure the clip of him getting involved in the main event was played on the Saturday morning TV too.

Okay, so was there a tease to a Luger/Davey Boy feud as a result? I gotta admit I tuned out of WWF programming around this time and wasn't aware of the particulars. Also, did Davey's haircut come later?

I'm guessing Davey Boy would have beaten Luger at the September IYH to prep him for facing Diesel in October, rather than beating the rapidly falling down the card Bam Bam Bigelow. I think WWF did tape four weeks of Luger stuff for tv that wound up being thrown out when he went back to WCW.

Makes sense, although a longer-term Davey/Lex feud would have had some great potential, and could have revitalized Lex's stock with the company.

Okay, so was there a tease to a Luger/Davey Boy feud as a result? I gotta admit I tuned out of WWF programming around this time and wasn't aware of the particulars. Also, did Davey's haircut come later?

There was no Luger/Smith feud teased. They never went in that direction at all. I have read before that the WWF was suddenly interested in using Luger as an upper midcarder again right before he jumped, and the plan was to have him put over Hunter Hearst Helmsley at the next In Your House. But no, I don't think they were moving in any direction with him and Davey Boy. Of course, had Luger stuck around, they might have.

 

(Keep in mind that there was no RAW the night Nitro debuted, so there was the weekend programming recapping Summerslam, but RAW wasn't returning until September 11. By that time, Luger had already jumped. He was still working house shows the weekend after Summerslam and being mentioned on TV that weekend too. He had a match for the WWF on a house show the night before he signed with WCW.)

 

Davey cut his hair pretty quickly after this. By the time he had a long promo with Cornette to explain why he turned, his hair was cut.

I have read before that the WWF was suddenly interested in using Luger as an upper midcarder again right before he jumped, and the plan was to have him put over Hunter Hearst Helmsley at the next In Your House.

Really ? Holy shit, Luger was so right to jump back to his home promotion. As soon as he was back on Nitro, he was a main-event star, and he stayed over like crazy until the end.

Apparently it hurt his long term contract negotiations though as they knew he couldn't jump back to WWF.

Reading this got me to thinking about the WWE's roster around this time. Here is a rough sketch of WWF's top guys from Wrestlemania to SummerSlam:

 

Diesel

Michaels

Sid

Bret

Bigelow

Razor

Mabel

Luger

Davey Boy

Jarrett (gone after July)

 

The thing that stands out to me is how incredibly weak the heel side is. You could argue that five of the top six guys are babyfaces (Nash, Michaels, Bret, Bigelow, and Razor vs Sid). Mabel had been languishing as a mid card comedy guy until the monster push in the spring, and all of a sudden, he's one of their top two heels, and expected to carry the #2 PPV of the year? Why turn Bigelow AND Shawn coming out of headlining Mania? Why not turn Bret, Hall, or Luger to give the heel side something? Heck, why wait until August to turn Davey Boy when they didn't really push the Allied Powers?

 

The roster itself isn't weak, but there aren't any compelling heel challengers for Nash here, which makes it no wonder he flopped so hard as champ, particularly by the summer. I wonder why Vince went with such a deep bench of babyfaces when most of them had nobody to work with, thus you have Bret feuding with Isaac Yankem, Shawn and Razor wrestling each other because there wasn't a compelling heel for Shawn to work with after Sid suffered his inevitable injury, Bigelow not even on the SummerSlam card, etc.

they should have turned Razor.

they should have turned Razor.

A Diesel-Razor feud with Razor as a heel might have been really good actually. Definitely better than what we got.

I think Razor, had he stuck around, would have definitely turned in '96, so they could headline a PPV with the "rubber" ladder match.

That would have been awesome for that year's Survivor Series, ending the series at MSG.

First Goldust and now Diesel with the Arnold references. This heel turn seemed random but was nicely executed.

Bulldog did a really cool powerslam to Diesel here. He picked him up so effortlessly that it made Nash look small.

This was one of the more shocking heel turns that I can recall, because it was so out of the blue. Nowadays, there always weeks of arguing, dissension, and mis communication that leads to the turn.

A truly terrible interview from Diesel, that says absolutely nothing of note over some of the most absurd canned cheers you'll ever see. They even zoom in on Diesel's face so you can't recognize how incongruous the noise is with the crowd activity. Davey Boy Smith is out to rescue this interview segment (how many times has THAT been said?), offering to help Diesel out after MOM made a challenge earlier in the night. REALLY not good when you're completely upstaged by the Bulldog on the stick, Kevin.

 

The match barely gets started, as Davey Boy levels Diesel with a clothesline from the back and Diesel gets laid out, with multiple legdrops from Mabel and the running powerslam from the Bulldog. The turn itself was done very well--even Davey's disingenuous cheerleading on the apron was entertaining. And this was probably the first time anywhere that Davey Boy had worked as a full-blown heel, a full 15+ years into his career, so it carries some historical weight to it also.