Speaker 1: Hey, this is a fall count clip drastay fallive on
Speaker 1: the foot line, every flap, every single field play to
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Speaker 2: It's a full count. Flight flat why flatway? Welcome back
Speaker 2: everyone to the fall count. I'm see fall and today
Speaker 2: we're going back in time to a huge night in
Speaker 2: wrestling history. The date is January twenty second, nineteen ninety six.
Speaker 2: The show is Monday Night Raw coming from Stockton, California.
Speaker 2: Now to see why this night was so big, you
Speaker 2: have to remember where the WWF was in early nineteen
Speaker 2: ninety six. The year before ninety five Woo that was
Speaker 2: a rough one. Money was tight, and the fans were
Speaker 2: getting tired of silly characters like plumbers, trash men, and
Speaker 2: evil dentists. On top of that, WCW was beating WWF
Speaker 2: in the TV ratings war almost every single week. But
Speaker 2: just one night before this episode was the nineteen ninety
Speaker 2: six Royal Rumble. Things started to slowly shift. Goldust won
Speaker 2: the Inner Continental Championship from Razor Ramone, Sean Michaels won
Speaker 2: his second Royal Rumble in a row to earn a
Speaker 2: shot at the world title at WrestleMania, and Bretta hit
Speaker 2: Manhart barely held on to his WWF championship against the Undertaker. Now,
Speaker 2: when ross started, Vince McMahon said, the rumble was the
Speaker 2: start of a brand new era. Where have we heard
Speaker 2: that before? HM. At the time, it sounded like normal
Speaker 2: promoter talk. But looking back today, this exact night was
Speaker 2: when the WWF started throwing out the silly cartoon gimmicks
Speaker 2: and getting more intense. Let's walk through the show match
Speaker 2: by match to see how it all happened. Now, the
Speaker 2: show didn't start slow. It started with total chaos. Making
Speaker 2: his big debut on Monday Night. Rot was Vader, managed
Speaker 2: by Jim Cornett. Vader was already famous across Japan and
Speaker 2: WCW for being an absolute monster who hurt people for real.
Speaker 2: His opponent tonight was Savio Vega. I'm sorry, Savio. The
Speaker 2: match was short, in under three minutes. Vader beat down
Speaker 2: Vega and pinned him cleanly with a big Vader bomb.
Speaker 2: But the match wasn't the big story. It was what
Speaker 2: happened after the bell. Vader completely lost his mind. He
Speaker 2: hit Vega with another Vader Bomb. When the referee showed up,
Speaker 2: Vader grabbed the referees and beat them down, hitting Jack
Speaker 2: done with a power bomb. This brought out WWF President
Speaker 2: grillaman Soon. Now, back in nineteen ninety six, fans knew
Speaker 2: you were never allowed to touch the officials or the
Speaker 2: authority figures. Grillamond Soon was a legend in a real life.
Speaker 2: Company Boss Monsoon stepped into the ring and told Vader
Speaker 2: he's the damn president and he's supposed to get the
Speaker 2: hell out of the ring and listen to what he's saying.
Speaker 2: Vader didn't care. He crushed the fifty eight year old
Speaker 2: Monsoon into the corner and hit him with the Vader
Speaker 2: Bomb too. This was absolutely crazy. Doctors had to put
Speaker 2: Monsoon on a stretcher and everyone was in shock. Why
Speaker 2: does this matter in wrestling history? First, in real life,
Speaker 2: Vader needed shoulder surgery right away. The company needed a
Speaker 2: huge shocking story to write him off after making his
Speaker 2: WWF debut the night before at the Royal Rumboldt. Second,
Speaker 2: this broke a huge rule on TV for the first
Speaker 2: time in forever. The company boss and the referees weren't safe.
Speaker 2: Seeing a legend like gerlaman Soon carried away on our
Speaker 2: stretcher was scary and felt real. It proved the WWF
Speaker 2: was ready to get darker and more violent. Next up,
Speaker 2: we had Hunter Hurst Hemsley taken on Raisor Ramone. Now
Speaker 2: to understand this match, you have to know what happening
Speaker 2: behind the scenes. In real life, both of these guys
Speaker 2: were best friends. They're in a backstage group called The Click,
Speaker 2: which also included Shawn Michaels Diesel In the one two
Speaker 2: three Kid, Razor Ramon's time in the WWF was coming
Speaker 2: to an end. Scott Hall, the man playing Razor, was
Speaker 2: just a few months away from leaving for WCW, where
Speaker 2: he would help start the famous nWo New World Order storyline.
Speaker 2: Because he was leaving, the WWF took him out of
Speaker 2: the main event title pictures and put him in strange
Speaker 2: feuds with his friend like the one two three Kid.
Speaker 2: On the other hand, Hunter Hurst Hemsley, played by a
Speaker 2: young Paul Levc, was being groomed for big things. Just
Speaker 2: a few months before this. He was stuck in silly
Speaker 2: storylines involving Mud and Slop and and Rio Godwin, But
Speaker 2: on this night he was treated like a future main
Speaker 2: event star. The finish was all about continuing the story.
Speaker 2: During the match, the one two three Kid ran down
Speaker 2: to the ring holding a baby bottle. He was making
Speaker 2: fun of Razor for crying about his title loss the
Speaker 2: night before to gold Dust. The kid stuck the baby
Speaker 2: bottle right in Razor's mouth. Razor lost his temper, forgot
Speaker 2: about the match, and chased the kid around the arena.
Speaker 2: The referee counted Razor out and giving Hunter Hurst Hemsley
Speaker 2: the win. This was a big deal for two reasons.
Speaker 2: It gave the young Hunter Hurst Hemsley a big win
Speaker 2: on TV to help him build his career, and it
Speaker 2: kept Razor busy in a middle of the card feud
Speaker 2: as his contract was running out now. During the show,
Speaker 2: Vince McMahon aired a funny segment making fun of w's
Speaker 2: d owner Ted Turner Wrestling Room. It showed how much
Speaker 2: the WWF was worrying about the Monday Night War and
Speaker 2: how even though he didn't say it, but hul Cogan
Speaker 2: and the Acho Man leaving for WCW hurt Vince McMahon.
Speaker 2: But then Vince McMahon brought out Sean and Michaels out
Speaker 2: to the ring. Michaels just won the Roy Rumble the
Speaker 2: night before, Ever, everyone knew he was set to fight
Speaker 2: for the world title at WrestleMania, But the WWF had
Speaker 2: two months of TV to fill before that, and they
Speaker 2: needed a believable rival to put this big match in danger.
Speaker 2: That rival was the King of Hearts, Owen Heart. Now.
Speaker 2: A few months earlier, Owen had kicked Sean in the
Speaker 2: back of the head with an inzigurry, causing Sean to
Speaker 2: faint on TV. Cornett came out to the rank and
Speaker 2: bragged that Owen was the guy who almost ended Sean's career.
Speaker 2: Cornett said Owen had no reason to fight Sean Michaels again,
Speaker 2: though Sean took that bait. He was so desperate to
Speaker 2: get revenge to get his hands at Owen that he
Speaker 2: promised to put his WrestleMania title shot on the line.
Speaker 2: So if Owen Hart beat Sean Michaels at the next
Speaker 2: pay per view, Owen would get the WrestleMania spot in
Speaker 2: Maine event WrestleMania. And think about that, because we almost
Speaker 2: got Owen Heart versus Brett Hart in the main event
Speaker 2: of WrestleMania. Wow. Now. To end this segment, though, Sean
Speaker 2: Michaels threw coronet over the top rope. Now, this was
Speaker 2: great booking. It gave fans a huge reason to watch
Speaker 2: the next pay per view. It tied back into the
Speaker 2: real life air Quote storyline from nineteen ninety five and
Speaker 2: made Sean look like a brave hero willing to risk
Speaker 2: everything to get revenge. Also, it's kind of a little
Speaker 2: dumb that you'd put your world title matchup against Owen,
Speaker 2: But either way, that brought us to the main event
Speaker 2: of the evening. It's World Champion Breadth the Hitman Heart
Speaker 2: taking on the new Inner Continental Champion, gold Us Champion
Speaker 2: Versus Champion. Now gold Us at this time was the
Speaker 2: most talked about guy in wrestling because his strange Hollywood
Speaker 2: character was pushing the limits of what you could show
Speaker 2: on TV in nineteen ninety six. A week ago on ROB,
Speaker 2: Vince McMahon had to clarify on commentary that gold Ust
Speaker 2: was not anti gay or pro gay. He was using
Speaker 2: psychological warfare on his opponents. That how much pressure was
Speaker 2: on the WWF with this Goldust character. Now, the match
Speaker 2: itself was focused on moving storylines four now. Near the end,
Speaker 2: Goldust tried to run away and go back to the
Speaker 2: locker room, but Razor Ramon cut him off and beat
Speaker 2: him up and threw him back in the ring. Brett
Speaker 2: Hart took advantage right away. He grabbed Goldust's legs, locked
Speaker 2: in his famous sharpshooter and made gold Dust give up.
Speaker 2: Making your brand new Inner Continental Champion tap out on
Speaker 2: his very first night on TV was a bit risky,
Speaker 2: but the WWF wanted to do two things here, keep
Speaker 2: Brett Hart looking like a super strong champion, even though
Speaker 2: he had Razors help to win, and the night before
Speaker 2: and Roy Rumble. That match didn't go very well either
Speaker 2: for Brett versus Undertaker. Without Diesel's interference, would Brett have
Speaker 2: beaten Undertaker? Hmm, but either way. After the match, Brett
Speaker 2: gave an interview, he called out Diesel and demanded a
Speaker 2: steel cage match so no one could interfere and next
Speaker 2: time Brett Hart was in a match. Now when the
Speaker 2: night was over, this episode of Rod did something nobody expected.
Speaker 2: For months, WCW had been beating the WWF in the
Speaker 2: TV ratings every single week because of their show was
Speaker 2: live and had big name stars like Hogan, Macho Man,
Speaker 2: Rick Flair, and Sting, and they were wrestling each other
Speaker 2: weekly giving away dream matches on Nitro. But when the
Speaker 2: TV numbers came in for January twenty second nineteen ninety
Speaker 2: six Monday NIGHTRA had a two point nine and WCW
Speaker 2: had a two point seven. The WWF wins even though
Speaker 2: WCW was live. It proved that the fans were ready
Speaker 2: for something new. The crazy attack by Vader Sean Michaels
Speaker 2: putting his championship match on the line to get revenge
Speaker 2: on Owen Brett. Our championship win brought millions of fans
Speaker 2: back to the WWF for this night. It was a violent,
Speaker 2: wild night and of course now we are on the
Speaker 2: road to wrestle Many at twelve. Thanks for listening, thanks
Speaker 2: for watching it. I'm see fall This has been the
Speaker 2: fall Count. Have a great day and we'll see you
Speaker 2: next time. Bye bye.
Speaker 1: Hey.
Speaker 2: This is a fall.
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