The SmarK Legacy Rant for Monday Night RAW - May 3 1993
- Taped from New York
- Your hosts are Vince, Macho & Bobby.
Intercontinental title: Shawn Michaels v. Hacksaw Jim Duggan
Nearing the end of Duggan's WWF run here. Shawn does the big stall to start and Duggan finally gets a series of clotheslines to begin things, as Shawn runs away again. Another attempt to run and this time Duggan drags Shawn back in as we take a break. Back with Shawn getting a necksnap on the top rope to take over, then slugging Duggan down and choking him out on the ropes. Double axehandle from the top follows and he does more choking and a chinlock. That goes on for a while, until Duggan fights back up, so Shawn clamps on another exciting chinlock. Duggan fights up again and slugs away in the corner, then hits the three-point clothesline, so Shawn takes a walk. Duggan chases him back to ringside, but then clotheslines him into the crowd and takes the countout win anyway at 11:04. This was all chinlock. 1/2* Duggan is upset at the countout decision, even though he could have thrown Shawn back in and didn't, and stages a sit-down strike in protest.
Doink the Clown v. The Kamikaze Kid
Doink immediately attacks and runs the Kid into the turnbuckle, then hits him with a belly to belly suplex and stomps him down. STF follows, but he releases and elbows him down again. The Kid's tights contradict his name, saying "L. Kid". Stump Puller finishes at 2:00. I think the Kid was some indy guy from Minnesota. Maybe he'll have better luck next week!
Ironic commentary aside, the online community in 1993, such as it was, had a collective orgasm when Sean Waltman signed with the WWF (it would be like, I dunno, Bryan Danielson signing today) and then nearly had a collective heart attack when he was jobbed so hard in his debut match, and with the wrong name to boot. In retrospect, Vince played it quite well.
Bob Backlund v. Dwayne Gill
Backlund controls on the mat, but Gill reverses him to a cross-armbreaker. Bob rolls him up for the pin at 3:38.
Jim Duggan returns to announce that next week, he gets another shot at the title, this time in a lumberjack match. Goody.
The Headshrinkers v. Jay Bell & Jim Savage (?)
Didn't really catch the jobber names, don't really care. The Shrinkers destroy the black jobber while Captain Lou joins us on commentary and talks about how he used to manage another pair of Samoans and how he might like to get these ones on the right track again. Double faceplant and they toss the jobber, and back in for a superkick from Samu. White jobber comes in and gets superkicked by Fatu, and they hit him with a spike piledriver. Flying splash finishes at 5:26.
Kamala v. Rick Meyers
The jobber takes a run at Kamala and runs into an elbow, then Kamala chokes him out with a pair of two-handed chokes and more choking. What is he, the Red Wings? Superkick and big fat splash finish at 2:26. Slick is absent, so the fans inform Kamala how to roll the guy over and pin him. Sex with Kamala must be awkward.
Next week: Bam Bam Bigelow v. Typhoon in a King of the Ring qualifier! Plus Sean Waltman tries it again!
Waltman leading to the Razor match and Gillburg on the same program? If Barry Horowitz and the Mulkey Brothers could have been booked, it might have be the Jobber-est show of all time.
In a good way of course.
This is when the WWF finally realized how to book a weekly live TV show as opposed to how they had been booking during Hulkamania. Like the Shawn/Duggan angle…nothing big but one match leads to another the next week. Obviously the Kid angle is another one…the show gets really good in the summer of 1993 (at least it was in my memories) because they started running tv angles that built upon each week.
Yeah, this was the first sign of things getting good (the Perfect / Doink match that aired on Superstars was a really good TV match, for that matter).
Funny how they were foreshadowing the Captain Lou / Shrinkers turn more than a year in advance. They couldn’t have had plans to turn them earlier since the Steiners were going to get the belts, but… that was a weird comment, all things considered.
Kid was my favourite wrestler during this period and wish WWF would have pushed him more.
How much more could they have pushed him? IC Champ? I don’t think so.
He could’ve been IC champ so long as he was booked right; He was over and think fans would’ve accepted him in that position.
But really, he should have at least dominated the tag division. He had a really good thing going with Bob Holly as a sort of new Rock N Roll Express, and they should have held the tag titles for a lot longer than they did.
Anyone could have been Intercontinental Champion “so long as they were booked right”, whatever that means.
I mean he was over, and so long WWF did the right booking, Waltman could’ve been IC champ without suffering backlash from the fans if Waltman was promoted to that position, otherwise Kid would’ve just been another Rocky Maivia.
Kid was originally meant to feud with HBK for the IC title in late ‘93 before HBK screwed up those plans, and I believe Kid could have been a legit IC champion since HBK would of sold for him and made him appear as a legit threat.
I think he was pushed as much as they could. There was no crusierweight division in either company (wwf/wcw), and you might have been able to give him an upset t.v. title reign if he was with wcw,KIND of like Prince Iaukea a few years ago.(*) IMO, he needed a couple of big wins to elevate him to IC title status. The victories over Razor Ramon were good television and defintely needed, he just needed more of them to elevate his credibility. Internet credibility is one thing, but it’s completely different to plain ol’ regular fans.. especially in 1993
* I know that Prince Iaukea was Bischoffs answer to The Rock, hopefully you can tell what I was going for anyhow =)
Kid had main event creditbility when he had that awesome match with Bret, and Bret sold for him and made him seem like a legit threat. Before that, Kid was just a fairly popular jobber that happened to get a fluke pin on Razor.
I don’t think people would have bought the 1-2-3 kid as World Champion potenial. I know I wouldn’t have. I mean, you’d have Hogan,Luger,Savage,Mr. Perfect,Yokozuna etc etc and then they could put it on a scrawny kid with a mullet? It’d be dirty pool. That Bret Hart match from July(?) of ‘93 gave him enough credibility to hang around and do what he ended up doing. Know what would have helped his career? Hanging out with hbk/razor
Either way, please don’t take my disagreements personal. That usually goes without saying, but this IS the internet and I’ve been to my share of blogs/messageboards.
I’m not saying Kid could have been world champion, I’m not taking things that far. I think IC title was the furthest Kid could have potentially gotten.
Anyway, I think my real point was that Kid was over and after the rub Bret gave him, fans saw Kid as a legit world title contender. I’m not saying Kid could have won the title or anything, but think WWF could have done good business putting Kid in more title matches much like Jeff Hardy in 2008.
Point of Order: The Bret match was from July 1994, not 1993 – he won the shot the night after KOTR 94.
But, yeah, IC title was his realistic ceiling, but they had Razor around in that time period dominating the IC title like few babyfaces before him.
And I thought the team with Marty was a much better matchup. They had a SPECTACULAR squash match on Challenge the week before the Quebecers match where they basically just busted out every crazy tag spot they could think of.
Re-correction: Kid won a title shot against Bret by beating Nikolai Volkoff, which wasn’t the day after KOTR, more close to a month after KOTR.
I agree Kid-Marty was a lot cooler and they really had the New Rockers thing down, but Marty was a fuckup that couldn’t be trusted to stay in the company for a long period of time, so tagging with Holly would’ve been a better long-term investment.
And with Ramon, the guy was over and after dominating the IC title scene, he SHOULD have moved up to the world title scene instead of sticking around in the IC division. Ramon-Diesel in 1995 would have done good business I’m sure.
Yeah I never understood why Razor didn’t move up to the main event after he dropped the IC title to Jarrett after Royal Rumble 1995. They could have at least given him a test-run at an IYH PPV. It’s not like the main-event scene was packed that year and only Bret, HBK, Nash and Taker were more over.
I agree, it’s amazing that Razor only got one world title shot in his entire WWF career (not just PPV, but on TV even). Razor seemed like the sort of guy that could have filled the Kane role by getting title shots at filler PPV’s when there was no-one left.
Razor should have turned on Diesel and they should have main evented Summer Slam.
That would have been a lot cooler than what we got. Plus they could of referenced past history by saying Ramon has Diesel’s number because he beat him in the previous Summerslam event.
I’m not sure if his personal problems had started yet or not, but Vince might have been worried about Scott Hall’s personal problems and any/all bad press. If I’m not mistaken the steroid trial was during the period we’re talking about, 93-94. The last thing Vince would need is his world champion out on a drunken,drug induced rampage making headlines.
Re-re-correction (heh): ‘Twas the night after KOTR
http://slashwrestling.com/monday/RAW.940620
Oddly, I think Pro Wrestling History has the wrong date for KOTR 94 – they have it listed as June 16.
I have a Coliseum tape with that Duggan vs. Michaels match and the Lumberjack rematch. The rematch, was I recall, as even longer, slower, and more boring. It was one of those out of body experiences for me where I couldn’t believe I was watching something so terrible.
For the life of me, I cannot understand how Duggan got over in WWF in the 1980s and early 90s. Any other wrestler that has been over I’ve understood, even if I didn’t take to him. But with Duggan, I never saw him cut a good promo, never saw a good match and didn’t even see an intangible ‘it’ factor that someone like Sid had. It makes me wonder if any guy could have gotten over by carrying a 2×4 and chanting ‘hooo’ every 5 seconds.
Duggan was pretty cool back in the UWF days, but when he came to the WWF he started becoming lazy and acting more like a cartoon character. I think what made Duggan become popular was the fact fans love chanting U-S-A, and Hacksaw did have a unique charisma.
They were pretty good about protecting Duggan from too many jobs – he got over simply because he won matches more often than the average WWF face.
Hell, they couldn’t even bring themselves to job him when it was him against Savage, Earthquake and Bravo during Survivor Series 1989.
He had charisma out the wazoo and he was doing lovable doofus years ahead of Mick Foley.
He had “U.S.A!”, “Hooooooo!” AND “tough guy”
Foley was capable of much more though and his ‘dreams can come true’ story was very appealing. Guess I just never saw Hacksaw’s charisma – but yeah he obviously had it because he always got an excellent babyface reaction.
I’d have to agree with some folks in that Duggan did have an “it” factor, combined with catchphrases before they became such a big part of the business. Not saying I liked him (except for when he would call Lita a “Hooooo!” years later), or that his ringwork was good at that time, but I would concur that he did have an odd charisma that got one’s attention. In the eighties, those qualities, along with size, and a unique prop, was enough to get a push in the WWF. Sigh.
Duggan and Ultimate Warrior were the two faces that I never bought even in my mark days. I mean I was all into Outback Jack (however briefly), Corporal Kirschner, and Lanny Poffo so I certainly cheered for some real crap. that said, I guess I was a little older by the time Duggan rolled around and I started to see how stupid his jingoisitic crap was. Who can forget when he interrupted Volkoff singing the Russiona National Anthem and told him he couldn’t sing it in America because it was the land of the free. I just hated Duggan and Warrior. Didn’t matter how sucky the opponent was, I rooted against them.
Mark me down as someone who didn’t like Duggan. He just seemed like such a retard. Especially by this period (1993-ish) when I was older, he didn’t seem like a cool guy to root for.
And that’s coming from a dork who was actually watching wrestling during 1993, when it was as far as you could get from cool.
The thing was Duggan is simple…he was over because he was harmless, just a side attraction that loved the USA and carried a 2×4. He was never booked in a serious feud, he never contended for titles, he was just a fun midcard act. I mean, his feud with Harley Race is remember for a fun, cheesy brawl not for any **** bloody classics. And he certainly had appeal….just about every wrestling fan, and some wrestling fans, recognize the name Hacksaw Jim Duggan and will probably say, Hoooo! if you bring him up.
Its one of those things where he was over and he got a nice pop…but he was never, ever over to the point that he was a legit draw during his WWF days. And I also thought he did the patriotic USA thing the best…he was never over the top, he just loved his country daggumit and didn’t take kindly to foreigners.
I was never a big Duggan fan, but I thought he was hilarious in his RF shoot interview. Made me more of a fan of his personality and style.
This is the 4th show since Wrestlemania IX? I don’t think Hogan, Hart, or Yokozuna have been on the show, and not mentioned that much.
So how long is it until RAW stops sucking? I hate to sound like an asshole, but watching no-name jobbers lose every week isn’t very entertaining.
Once again, I’m just saying Razor getting title shots would have been good for business and drawing money, but I’m not saying Scott Hall should have been world champion. I understand why WWF wouldn’t want Hall as their world champion, but shouldn’t stop him getting title shots and making fans believe he could possibly win the title in order to draw money.
Plus, I don’t think Hall’s problems became an issue until the late-90’s WCW years, when he was being paid lots of money and ended up getting in lots of trouble and sent home all the time.
I know the steroid trial was going on at this time, it just seemed like that kind of stuff was not only accepted as a part of the business at that point in the 80s/early 90s, it was sort of encouraged.
he had a shot at the Rumble 1993.
That’s why I said he only got one title shot in his entire career.