The SmarK Legacy Rant for Monday Night RAW - April 5 1993
- So it's the night after Wrestlemania IX.
- Live from New York.
- Your hosts are Vince & Macho. Does this mean the end of Rob Bartlett? Please?
Virgil v. Bam Bam Bigelow
Virgil evades Bigelow and works the arm, as Bigelow misses a blind charge and Virgil holds a wristlock. He tries to dropkick the knee and that goes terribly, but Bam Bam misses a headbutt and Virgil rolls him up for two. Crucifix is blocked with a samoan drop and Bigelow hits the chinlock. He pounds away in the corner and puts Virgil in a half-nelson, then pounds him down with headbutts again. We go to a very long bearhug, and Bigelow runs into boot on a blind charge as Virgil makes the comeback with a missile dropkick for two. Virgil slugs away and plays chase, but misses a crossbody out of the corner and Bam Bam flattens him with a clothesline and finishes with the flying headbutt at 6:57. Pretty competitive, but nothing exciting. **
- Sadly, Bartlett is just stranded in Las Vegas after losing everything at the tables and will be back.
Jerry Lawler v. …
Never mind, as fans chant "Burger King" and Lawler declares that if they don't stop, he'll leave. And so he does.
Bob Backlund v. Kim Chee
Exactly WHERE is "Deepest, Darkest Africa"? I'm assuming somewhere in the geographical center, but isn't the sun pretty bright everywhere since it's near the equator? Bob frustrates Kim with mat wrestling, but gets slammed and chinlocked. Chee rams Bob's head into the mat for two and goes back to the chinlock, but Bob escapes with a backdrop suplex. Kim Chee tries a monkey flip, but Bob wraps him up for the pin at 3:58. *
Damien Demento v. Jim Brunzell
They trade hammerlocks while Vince does a "comedy" routine with Bartlett where Rob calls and begs for money to come back and Vince pretends that he can't hear him. Actually that's kind of funny considering how much I hate Bartlett. Brunzell with a small package for two and a sunset flip for two. Demento blocks a hiptoss with a clothesline as Vince shills the Wrestlemania replay because "you don't want to miss the greatest pay per view in WWF history!" There's overcompensation and then there's just delusion and I think we're crossing a line here. Demento stomps away in the corner, but Brunzell rams him into the turnbuckle and dropkicks him for two. Demento comes back with a neckbreaker and finishes with a kneedrop at 4:53. 1/2*
Jerry Lawler v. …
Nope, another false start.
The Beverly Brothers v. The Steiner Brothers
Fun fact: Only one of these teams are actually brothers. Answer later if I feel like it. Vince talks about thanking all the cable systems who are presenting the encore presentation of WM for "the first time". Was that really the first time we got a replay of a PPV? PPV was really new in Canada at that point so I don't know if this was actually a new concept. Beau frustrates Scott with hairpulling to start and stomps him down, but Scott fires back with the butterfly bomb. So it's over to Blake and Rick, as Blake gets a powerslam, but so does Rick. I find it interesting that Vince was so free about using "The Dogfaced Gremlin" for Rick considering his usual mania about trademarking his own stupid nicknames. Those of you who remember how many times we had to hear "Big Daddy Cool" in 1993 before it got over will know what I mean. Scott comes in and gets double-teamed in the Beverly corner with a Broken Arrow, and Beau gets a backbreaker for two as we take a break. Back with Blake holding a bearhug, but Scott escapes with a suplex. Beau comes in and Scott fights back with a tilt-a-whirl slam (or "WHATAMANEUVER!" if you're Vince) and it's hot tag Rick. Steinerline for Beau gets two, but it's BONZO GONZO and Vince is outraged by the ref's lack of control. Franksteiner kills Blake dead at 8:53. Or Beau, whatever, who gives a shit. **
Jerry Lawler v. Jim Powers
Powers finally attacks him to get him in the ring for real. Powers comes off the top with a forearm and clotheslines him out of the corner. Powers off the gas is HILARIOUS. It's like when Chris Masters went off the roids that first time. Not that steroid abuse is anything to laugh at, but you can really tell who got the worst of the drug crackdowns in 1992. Lawler stalls a lot and runs away after getting slammed. Powers slugs away in the corner and claps his hands a lot, but Lawler gets a cheapshot and chokes him out. Lawler drops a fist and yaks at Randy Savage at ringside, which would have been an awesome feud, I think. Powers dodges a blind charge and makes the comeback with his goofy cheerleader mannerisms and a backdrop. You don't have to go "YEAH!" after ever transition move, man. Powers put his head down and it's piledriver city at 6:14, however. Lawler makes sure to pull the tights as well. 1/2*
- Lawler cuts a promo on Savage and all of New York to close things out.
Next week: Money Inc. v. The Bushwhackers!
Related Posts:
- The SmarK Legacy Rant for Monday Night RAW – April 19 1993
- The SmarK Legacy Rant for Monday Night RAW – February 22 1993
- The SmarK Legacy Rant for Monday Night RAW – April 12 1993
- The SmarK Legacy Rant for Monday Night RAW – March 8 1993
- The SmarK Legacy Rant for Monday Night RAW – May 31 1993
Tags: Bob Backlund, Canada, Locke, Monday Night RAW, Randy Savage, RAW, Steiner Brothers, Sting, Wrestlemania, WWF
HistoryofWWE.com says this show was not live but actually taped two weeks in advance at the 3/22/93 Raw event, despite it airing the day after Mania. That would never, ever happen today.
Yeah, but today they’d never have WrestleMania in Las Vegas and then RAW the next night in New York. RAW would tape a lot closer to, if not in Las Vegas.
Just curious… will Spring Stampede 99 or Judgment Day 00 ever be the next show that Scott rants on?
It’s more of a demo of the poll feature, but I have both DVDs sitting on my pile should I ever decide to actually follow through, yes.
Spring Stampede is actually kind of a significant show, both for the great matches and historically. It had great matches from top to bottom pretty much, and was basically the TRUE jumping off point for WCW in the ratings and PPV buy rates. Everything just fell off rapidly after this show.
The original rant of Spring Stampede 99 isn’t so great while the Judgment Day 00 one is serviceable. It’s colored by a little bit of excessive WCW hate causing the main event to get a lot of negative comments or even a star rating despite it being really really good; amazing if you consider the old farts involved.
“Those of you who remember how many times we had to hear “Big Daddy Cool” in 1993 before it got over will know what I mean.”
And for those of you who DIDN’T… well, just wait a couple of months.
I was thinking that Vegas back to NY for a taping wouldn’t have been the best of flight schedules, so this one I kinda knew was taped.
And if they’re showing the Challenges from this period, keep an eye out for a Shawn / Brunzell match that gets REALLY good.
LOL at Jim Powers… actually, I didn’t think he was that bad of a worker (better than Roma for sure), as he was like a poor man’s Tito Santana. Too bad he didn’t have any real offensive moves.
Let’s be fair. They both sucked almost equally. Roma’s only saving grace is that he used to be able to do a picture perfect elbow off the top.
I’m pretty sure that Bartlett won’t be on anymore. If memory serves, he cuts another “Help, I’m stuck in Vegas” promo the next week. I don’t wish to be quoted on that, it being over 15 years ago and all.
I was such a dumb mark in the early 90s..I was convinced each week that THIS was the week Jim Powers would get the big victory and move up the ladder. I remember an IC title match with Shawn in late 1992 on PrimeTime (who knows if thats accurate) where I actually thought Powers was going to win the IC title.
wow, that HistoryOfWWE site is just about the greatest thing for uber wrestling dorks. HBK did beat Jim Powers on PrimeTime in ‘92 but it was before he won the title. Point still stands…I thought Powers had potential.
Powers was consistently the jobber that got the most offence in during 1992-1993, even if it was just attempts at dropkicks on Giant Gonzales that failed miserably. That role was taken by Horowitz later, which led to the inevitable conclusion of him eventually getting a win.
Hey Scott, any thoughts on the whole Foley/411mania dramatic nonsense?
Was it a one shot deal? (ducking)
- Who knew 411 was still around?
- If Foley wants to write another book and people are willing to pay money for it, then more power to him. But I can certainly see why people would think a fourth bio would be overkill.
- There nothing wrong with charity, but I’ve never been a fan of throwing your good work in the faces of others to prove your superiority. It should be done because you want to help others, not so you can declare ‘look how awesome I am for helping all these people!’ whenever you have an argument or debate. I’m not saying Mick’s doing that here, but there’s a fine line.
- Who takes anonymous troll posts on a message board seriously anymore? In fact, by even acknowledging them at all, he probably made their entire year.
“Who knew 411 was still around?”
That’s pretty silly. I’m not making any kind of endorsements about the quality of writing there, but it’s impossible to deny the amount of traffic that goes through the site. Mick Foley obviously reads it.
Mick probably wouldn’t get so much grief if he wasn’t a broken down guy clinging onto the top spot in TNA despite him making fun of guys that did that 10 years ago. However, it’s hard to turn down a paycheck so I understand. If TNA is dumb enough to make him their champion, so be it.
I lost a lot of respect for Mick. I mean of all people, Mick Foley, who made his entire career by basically admitting to being a dorky wrestling now making fun of dorky wrestling fans.
Its one thing to just have an opinion, but for him to be like “I help people, I bet none of you have!” was childish at best. What kind of arguement is that?
It was extremely disappointing.
As for the writing on 411, I only read JD Dunn and whoever is the new guy who has been reviewing the Superstars episodes from 86 & 87. But hasnt that the way its always been? People read the news, reviews and ignore the columns? I used to write a column for 411 like 5 years ago, good times.
Well, I wasn’t trying to be snarky, I honestly thought that site went the way of Scoops, the nWWWo, Rantsylvania, The News From Daytona, Slobberknocker Central, Herb Kunze and the RSPW Newsgroup.
But hey, they’re still around. Good for them.
Pretty sure Hbk came up with the Big Daddy Cool name and Vince just ran with it. It surely wasnt 93, more toward the end of 94
Would have been beginning-mid of 94 now that I think of it. I specifically recall Diesel winning the IC title from Ramon and then he went on the Heartbreak Hotel on Superstars or RAW and wanted to be called Big Daddy Cool from then on.
Lawler/Savage would have been awesome. Their matches in Memphis are one of the few reasons to pick up the Wrestling Gold dvd set from several years back (those matches, and Dave Meltzer and Jim Cornette’s sublime commentary track…)
They teased a Savage/Lawler feud for a little while but never did a proper blowoff. Though, this was back when WWF was kid friendly and cartoonish, so a proper Savage/Lawler feud would of sucked without a bloodbath.
Isn’t the whole “deepest, darkest Africa” thing just a reference to the old Bugs Bunny cartoon? I think there were several of them dealing with characters going to “deepest, darkest Africa” but I know one of them was banned from appearing on television due to it’s overt use of racism towards the African’s in the story.
Also — there is no truth to Vince’s comment about PPV replays. All live broadcasts of WWF (not sure about WCW) PPV’s as far back as 1991 were immediately proceeded by a replay, and I can remember the Royal Rumble 1992 PPV being broadcast on a later date for a replay, but perhaps it was the first WrestleMania.
Actually I take that back. I’m thinking of Summer Slam 1993, which was broadcast on several days following the show, so WrestleMania IX was probably the first to be broadcast in replay, other then the immediate showing following the event. Although if you want to get technical, it was the series of “Titan’s Hot Ticket!” PPV’s in 1991 that were the first WWF PPVs to have multiple broadcasts. Does anybody have any of those on tape? I can only remember two — “WrestleMania – History and Heroes” and “Hulk Hogan – A Real American Story”. I kind of wonder what WWF compilation shows looked like in the early 1990s.
I can actually remember taping Summer Slam 1990 off of PPV and realizing about halfway through that I had it on the *SP* setting on a T120 tape. I had a fit (I was 9, first PPV, had been a wrestling fan for about 2 months at that point) and then all was right with the world when the replay came on and I could tape it in the SLP setting — and I thought I was going to have to BEG my dad for another $27.95 to order the replay so I could finish taping the thing! Oh for those days, when my very life was held in the balance over whether or not I could make a tape of a PPV.
Youre not alone. WrestleMania 8 was by far the biggest, most happiest day of my life until that point when I got to order my first PPV.
That was my second PPV! Well okay, second one I actually ordered, non-scramblevision PPV — and yes it was just as glorious of a day the second time around.