The SmarK Legacy Rant for Monday Night RAW - April 19 1993
- Taped from New York.
- Your hosts are Vince, Randy, and for the last time, Rob Bartlett. Thanks to Rob for taking the time to comment on last week's RAW rant and acknowledging how terrible an announcer he was.
Razor Ramon v. Virgil
They trade wristlocks to start and Razor makes the ropes to escape. Ramon takes him down with a headlock and Virgil counters out, so Razor gives him a shot in the corner. Virgil cradles for two, however, and hiptosses him into a rollup attempt that they somehow manage to mess up. Virgil tries to follow with a dropkick, but Ramon evades him and stomps away to take over. He hooks the abdominal stretch as the crowd is clearly cheering for the heel Ramon at this point. Ramon slams him and slaps him around, then chokes him out on the ropes. He applies a half-assed STF, but Virgil makes the ropes…and the crowd continues chanting "Razor". Virgil makes the comeback with a flying clothesline, but misses a bodypress and Razor squashes him like a bug with the Razor's Edge at 6:55. Boring match, interesting crowd dynamic. *1/4
Giant Gonzalez v. LA Gore
Wait a sec, does this make Gonzalez ManBearPig? Gonzalez pounds away on Gore and puts him down with a big boot, then chokeslams him for the pin at 1:13.
Meanwhile, Luna Vachon cuts a crazed promo on Sherri. I'm assuming this was supposed to be leading to a match or a payoff of some sort, but it never did that I can recall.
Tatanka v. Art Thomas
Wow, Thomas is JACKED. Surprised he didn't get a job and a push just based on his look. I'm assuming he's no relation to "Sailor" Art Thomas. Thomas pounds away in the corner and gets a back elbow, but Tatanka goes to the arm, only to miss the elbowdrop. That's enough for him, however, as it's the Pissed Off Racial Stereotype comeback and Papoose to Go at 2:28.
Money Inc. v. The Beverly Brothers
Big brawl to start and the Bevs clear the ring as Vince notes "no one really cares who wins this match, I don't think". I love shoot comments that aren't supposed to be shoot comments. We start properly with Dibiase and Blake as Vince is being fairly open with his disdain for Rob on commentary. Dibiase boots Blake down, but misses an elbow and gets slammed. The Beverlies work the arm as they're apparently trying to play babyface despite doing their heel entrance. Whatever. Then they start cheating and double-team Dibiase behind the ref's back before going back to the arm again. Blake chokes away in the corner, but runs into an elbow and IRS comes in. He misses an elbow and the Bevs go to work on his arm now. I really don't care who I'm supposed to be cheering for, but I really wish they'd pick sides and get the heat on someone. They choke IRS out in the corner and we take a break from all the excitement. Back with Beau now getting double-teamed by Money Inc. and apparently playing face-in-peril. MAKE UP YOUR DAMN MINDS. Beau comes back with a neckbreaker on Dibiase and makes the hot tag to Blake, who gets a pair of backdrops on Dibiase for two. Sadly, the Bevs try another double-team, screw it up, and Dibiase cradles Blake for the pin at 10:57. I hate to see fake families splintered like that. This was ungodly boring and they couldn't even decide who was supposed to be getting the heat. And did anyone really buy the Beverlies as a serious threat? DUD
Bret Hart joins us to emphasize that he's not done and he'll be back for bigger and better things. And he would! First up on his revenge tour: Lex Luger. That one never led anywhere either, unless they did a house show swing together.
Bam Bam Bigelow v. Phil Apollo
Bigelow overpowers him and pounds the crap out of him with shoulderblocks, then a flying forearm and neck vice. Bigelow swats him down on a dropkick attempt and suplexes him as Doink makes his way down the aisle for some reason. You're a year too early and the wrong guy for that feud, clown. Bigelow pays him no attention and squashes Apollo with an avalanche, then hits him with a senton splash and puts him out of his misery with the flying headbutt at 4:40. Friar Ferguson comes out to bless the fallen Apollo and save him from any further beatings. They actually had a FEUD booked for the guy?
Next week: Crush v. Lex Luger! And a new color commentator! And hopefully a less painfully dull show!
Related Posts:
- The SmarK Legacy Rant for Monday Night RAW – May 31 1993
- The SmarK Legacy Rant for Monday Night RAW – March 8 1993
- The SmarK Legacy Rant for Monday Night RAW – April 5 1993
- The SmarK Legacy Rant for Monday Night RAW – October 4 1993
- The SmarK Legacy Rant for Monday Night RAW – August 9 1993
Tags: Bret Hart, Edge, House, Lex Luger, Monday Night RAW, RAW, Sting
I have to say, I didn’t remember Razor getting cheered until after the 1-2-3 Kid loss. The more you know…
Ramon was getting face pops after he jobbed to Bret at the Rumble then they used the Kid angle as a catalyst for his face turn.
It was first really noticeable at WMIX. I didn’t really see the big deal in Razor – his squashes weren’t really dynamic, and his match with Bret at the Rumble was a bad night for both guys – but I guess the fans were ahead of me on that one.
And, yeah, Bret and Luger did a house show run against each other. I think only one made tape, but it sure had all of us thinking that it was going to be Bret / Luger in the KOTR finals when they were placed in opposite halves of the bracket. Of course, I didn’t know Duggan was on his way out, which is what basically gave the entire tournament away other than the shock of doing Bret / Perfect.
yeah it was great that they did Bret/Perfect, that’s just an awesome match. It made up for not doing Savage / Steamboat II at WrestleMania IV.
Man, I watched WrestleMania IV again this week and I have to say — it’s not really a bad show at all. In hindsight, the booking was pretty bad, but it’s got a nice vibe to it and I find it incredibly watchable. The commentary all through it is pretty fun too.
well… except for Rude/Jake… I can never make it through that snoozer. Hard to believe they would have such a hot feud later on.
Now that you mentioned it, while I do remember the Sherri/Luna feud, I don’t remember them ever facing each other. Sherri bolted to WCW pretty soon, while Luna disappeared until she came back for “The Artist Formerly Known as Goldust.”
A quick google search and Wikipedia provides two stories. First, there seems to be have been a Bam Bam/Luna vs. Tatanka/Sherri match planned for SummerSlam 1993 that got scrapped. That would explain the random, yet surprisingly awesome, 6 man tag that ended up on the card. One story is that Luna broke her arm, cancelling the match and then Sherri left. The other is that Sherri got fired in the summer of 1993 for failing a drug test.
Careful friends: Wikipedia has never been a beacon of factual integrity, and when you throw pro wrestling into the mix? Who knows who the crap has been editing those pages?
Well the proposed SummerSlam match came from Luna’s shoot interview and the Sherri fired for drugs came from a PW Torch article that is no longer online.
Wikipedia can be a nice tool if there’s a citation. Of course with pro wrestling, 99% of the citations are wrestler’s shoot interviews, books & such so it doesn’t really prove anything. At least the proposed match makes sense since Tatanka kept saving Sherri from Luna.
I had a WWF Magazine which contained a Summerslam ‘93 PPV preview and one of the matches was Bam Bam/Luna v. Tatanka/Sherri. So, that was definitely a scheduled match for the show. I seem to remember Sherri just disappearing one week, which makes me think that Sherri being fired was probably the reason it was scrapped.
I also know, Luna v. Sherri was a match on Superstars which I think ended in a DQ that had Bam Bam and Tatanka involved, which was probably supposed to set the PPV match up.
I love the entries where every feud they have ever been in is exhaustively detailed and written from a point of view as if the angles were real.
They read more like ridiculously convoluted works of fiction (which is what they are, I suppose) than encyclopedia entries.
I know, its impossible to read about a guy like the Undertaker or HBK on there…its just like 30 pages of storylines.
I do like Wikipedia and the History of WWE site when I’m watching 24/7 and something pops up that I don’t remember or didn’t know about it.
I also enjoy when there is some insane fact listed with the good ol’ “citation needed” that indicates its false.
-Sherri’s face turn didn’t last very long, as she was out of the WWF by the summer and showed up in WCW as Flair’s valet about a year later.
-Bret & Luger didn’t get much of a “feud”, if any, because Luger was quickly turned face after Hogan split.
-I vaguely recall a brief half-ass sort of “face turn” for the Beverly Bros. around this time that went absolutely nowhere.
-IIRC, “Phil Apollo” would later be suited up as the third Doink. And Friar Ferguson’s run was maybe a couple of segments taped at one or two TV sessions, and run over the course of a few weeks.
If you recall, Sherri went to ECW for a while before showing up in WCW in June 1994 as Flair’s valet. I believe she was placed with Shane Douglas in ECW. I remember being shocked that she left the WWF after reading a “Best Wishes” column in the August or September 1993 WWF Magazine. That was a strange time period for the company, as within that year, you had Mean Gene, Bobby Heenan, Sherri, Duggan, and whole host of other “regular” WWF performers no longer there.
I know huh? It was a strange mass exodus as they purged off all the big 80s stars and announcers. Seeing all different announcers always freaked me out — no more Sean Mooney, Lord Alfred Hayes, Mene Gene, Bobby Heenan, etc… and Gorilla took a big step back for Jim Ross initially.
I have to say, Jim Ross in the WWF never really worked for me. He was great in the NWA and in the early 90s WCW, but something about this WWF run always annoyed me, even in his glory period in 1998/1999 or so. He was practically a treat in 1993 though, with Vince and Savage on commentary most of the time.
Weren’t the Nasty Boys faces too around this time? The Nasty Boys?? Faces? That’s just wrong.
After Bret lost the title, I think I remember reading he was suppose to be involved in a lengthy feud with Luger (they teased it at WM9), but WWF changed their minds and decided Luger to be an All American Hero and Lawler took Luger’s spot in feuding with Bret.
Bret and Luger had a bunch of matches post-Wrestlemania up until July (including a couple after Luger’s face turn), generally with Bret winning via DQ when Ramon interfered.
Phill Apollo is not Ray Apollo aka Ray Liachelli. Liachelli is the one who played Doink in 1994-95.
Haha I remember the whole Phil Apollo is/isn’t Doink was one of the many debates on RSPW back in the day.