Raven vs Sandman, New Jack, Demolition & More
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On May 16th History will be made in the State of Sandman spent the time period from December 1995 through May 1997 engaged in a bloody war with Raven. On January 27, 1996, Sandman lost the World Heavyweight=2 0Championship to Raven and the two would trade the title back and forth. Sandman joined forces with Raven's nemesis Tommy Dreamer and on October 5, 1996, regained the title by pinning Raven's partner Stevie Richards in a tag team match pitting Sandman and Dreamer against Richards and Raven's replacement Brian Lee. During the feud, Raven allied himself to the returned Lori Fullington and brainwashed her and Sandman's real-life son Tyler into joining his cult-like following, turning him against his father. Raven psychologically attacked Sandman by having his son deny his relationship with his father, telling On October 26, 1996, during one particularly brutal match, Sandman's son interfered to help his father. Afterward, the two embraced, but Raven came from behind with a Singapore Cane, and smacked his enemy. Stevie Richards and the Blue Meanie came out with a giant wooden cross and crucified him. Later, Raven came back on stage and gave a questionable apology for his actions. To this day, Scott Levy (Raven), who came up with the idea, and, claims that the angle wasn't intended as an insult to Jesus Christ, but an insult to the Sandman, by using religious iconography to convey an artistic standpoint. The footage of the crucifixion was never used by ECW and was not publicly seen until it appeared on the WWE DVD The Rise and Fall of ECW. On December 7, 1996 Sandman again lost the title to Raven in a barbed wire match. Theyhave since faced each other hundreds of times thru the years and in USA Pro/UXW their feud continued from 2002 thru 2006 which ended in an amazing bloodbath during the Chris Candido Memorial Show when then WWE20superstar Mick Foley made a suprise appearance and was the special guest referee and both Raven and Foley traded socks as Foley used Mr Socko and Raven used the Evil Mr Socko on Foley and Raven threw Fire into Sandmans face and this will be there first meeting since that historic match! On March 14 edition of Saturday Night's Main Event, Demolition participated in a battle royal, won by Hercules Hernandez. Demolition became known for their aggressive style in the ring and the way that they dominated their matches. Their first feud was with the team of Ken Patera and Billy Jack Haynes, which started after Ax and Smash brutalized WWF jobber Brady Boone (cousin of Billy Jack Haynes) during a televised match. Demolition claimed victories over all of the established face tag teams in the WWF at the time, including the Killer Bees (Jim Brunzell and B. Brian Blair), The Fabulous Rougeaus (Jacques and Raymond), British Bulldogs (Dynamite Kid and Davey Boy Smith),The Young Stallions (Paul Roma and Jim Powers),The Islanders (Haku and Tama) and Can-Am Connection (Rick Martel and Tom Zenk).Around that same period, they took on Mr. Fuji as their manager. Demolition made their pay-per-view debut at Survivor Series 1987 in a 10 team tag team match where 5 babyface teams faced 5 heel teams. Demolition were part of the heel group and the face team went on to win the match. Demolition proved to be a dominant tag team since their debut. At WrestleMania IV, Ax and Smash defeated Strike Force (Rick Martel and Tito Santana) to win their first WWF Tag Team Championship, thus starting their domination as champions. As champions, they easily defeated a number of the top teams of the WWF, which at the time had a very talent-rich and hotly contested tag division, most notably British Bulldogs and Hart Foundation (Bret Hart and Jim Neidhart). Their first big challenge came in the summer of 1988, when Powers of Pain (the Warlord and the Barbarian) entered the WWF and challenged them for the Tag Team Championshi p. Sensing that his team could not defeat th ese new challengers, Mr. Fuji turned on Demolition at Survivor Series 1988 and began to manage the Powers of Pain. Demolition turned babyfaces as a result of this betrayal by Mr. Fuji and defeated the Powers of Pain & Mr. Fuji in a tag team handicap match at WrestleMania V to retain the WWF Tag Team Champ ionship.Prior to this, Ax and Smash also memorably squared off against each other as entrants #1 and #2 in the Royal Rumble match at Royal Rumble 1989 before being joined in the ring by André the Giant. After WrestleMania, Demolition started a feud with The Brain Busters (Arn Anderson and Tully Blanchard), who were the members of the heel stable The Heenan Family. On May 27, 1989 edition of Saturday Night's Main Event, Demolition defended the titles against Brain Busters and retained the titles by getting disqualified. Demolition became the longest reigning WWF Tag Team Champions after breaking the record of The Valiant Brothers (Jimmy and Johnny), and lasting a reign of 478 days. They finally dropped the titles to Brain Busters in a two-out-of-three-falls match on July 29 edition of Saturday Night's Main Event. Demolition started a feud with André the Giant and The Twin Towers (Akeem and Big Bossman). At SummerSlam 1989, Jim Duggan and Demolition defeated André and Demolition next feuded with new team of Heenan Family, known as The Colossal Connection (André the Giant and Haku). On December 30 , Demolition lost the tag titles to Colossal Connection. At WrestleMania VI , Demolition defeated Colossal Connection to regain the titles and win their third and final WWF Tag Team Championship, and finally putting an end to their feud with the Heenan Family.
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