The SmarK Legacy Rant for Monday Night RAW - June 21 1993
- Live from Poughkeepsie, New York.
- Your hosts are Vince, Bobby and Randy.
The Steiner Brothers v. Barry Hardy & Reno Higgins
And another big surprise to start, as the Steiners are now WWF tag team champions, having beaten Money Inc. since the previous show. In fact they're two-time champions because they did a pair of quickie switches at house shows (ironically the first of which was going on while RAW was airing "live" the week before), all of which are acknowledged freely by Vince on commentary. Scott tosses Riggins around like a ragdoll and brings in Hardy for more abuse. Over to Rick Steiner, who runs Hardy into the corner, and back to Scott for the chinlock. Overhead suplex and it's back to Riggins, who walks into a belly to belly right away. Frankensteiner (and not a very nice one, either) finishes at 3:49.
2/3 Falls: Doink the Clown v. Marty Jannetty
Doink tries to convince Marty to meet him in the corner, but Marty's not quite THAT dumb and waits him out. Doink shows some sportsmanship on the ropes as Randy Savage of all people coins the phrase "DTA". He should sue Steve Austin for royalties. Doink goes to the headlock and grinds on it, and they criss-cross into a monkey-flip from Jannetty. Doink frustrates him with him hair-pulling, however, and they do another criss-cross, with Marty out-smarting him this time and then ramming his face into the mat. Another criss-cross and Marty drops a fist for two, then goes to an armbar. Doink counters to his own, but Marty has a nice takedown to reverse out and Doink bails. Back in, Marty monkey-flips him out of the corner for two and goes back to the arm, then backslides for two. Blind charge misses and Doink wins the first fall with the Whoopie Cushion at 7:13.
Second fall sees Doink attacking in the corner, then whipping Marty into the turnbuckles for a Bret Hart bump. Marty bails, and Doink follows him out with a flying axehandle (Savage: "Uh, you know he just stole my move!") and back in for two. Doink deliberately puts his head down and then dodges Marty's kick attempt, legsweeping him for two. That's a cool spot. He goes to the chinlock, but Marty rolls him up for two. They fight over a suplex and Marty wins that one, then goes up before changing his mind. Superkick makes the crowd go "Ooooooh", but Doink is in the ropes. So Marty goes up again and this time finishes the second fall with a fistdrop at 12:08.
Third fall sees Doink begging for mercy, but he walks into an atomic drop and Marty clotheslines him for two. Doink bails and pulls Marty to the post, injuring the leg, and that sets up a figure-four. Marty's tapping out, but it's too early in 1993 for anyone to interpret that as a submission. Marty reverses the hold, but Doink makes the ropes. Doink goes back to the leg, but Marty backdrops him before the knee gives away again. Doink wraps him up with an STF off that and then pounds the knee further before going up again. Jannetty slams him off the top and makes the comeback with a back elbow, but the knee is still hurting him. He pounds away in the corner, but another Doink makes his way to ringside and hides under the ring. Marty stupidly goes to investigate, which allows Doink to baseball slide him and send him into the post. Back in, Marty dropkicks Doink out of the ring, which allows the switch to take place. Back in, Gator-Doink gets two. Marty cradles for two. He puts his head down and gets clobbered, and Gator-Doink finishes with the piledriver at 21:11. Randy Savage is not putting up with this shit, though, and hauls the Doinks from under the ring to prove shenanigans, so the ref reverses the decision. I'm amazed they gave these guys 22 minutes, and it was ruling the old school, with some great selling from Marty and good drama. Matt Bourne was far more motivated in this role than any sane person should have been. ****
Mr. Hughes v. Bobby Who
Another boring squash from Hughes, as he hits Who with a dropkick and a side salto for two. The crowd is already chanting "boring" at him. Hughes chokes away and finishes with the Bossman slam at 2:58. "Thank goodness it's over" says Savage. No argument there.
$10,000 Challenge: Razor Ramon v. The 1-2-3 Kid
Kid is understandably hesitant to get in there, but he dives in with a sunset flip for two. Leg lariat gets two. Razor hits him with the fallaway slam, however, and then puts him down with a clothesline and stomps away. Ramon chokeslams him and hooks the abdominal stretch and slaps him around on the mat. Running powerslam and he gets the backdrop superplex as Vince calls it over. Ramon tosses him for some reason and decides to go for the gusto, pulling up the mats for a Razor's Edge on the concrete, but Kid backdrops out of it and goes up…then slips and lands facefirst on the concrete in a terrifying spot. Apparently he's still alive, because they head in and Kid gets another moonsault press for two, then decides that discretion is the better part of valor and grabs the money before making a run for it. Double countout at 5:15 and Ramon is out $10,000. Razor's even more pissed now. **1/2
Next week: Night of Champions! Shawn Michaels v. Kamala and Yokozuna defends the belt as well!
This was a great show, really enjoyed it.
Two things sprung to mind. First, would’ve loved if the “Big Poppa Pump” character was created circa ‘92. Steiner would’ve ruled the world. Second, good luck getting a 20 minute match between two mid carders on Raw these days. Doink-Jannetty was awesome.
Yeah, it’s interesting how much stuff we associate with the Attitude Era (and having been new at that time) was actually around beforehand.
Also, as I stated a couple of weeks ago Jannetty could get **** matches, and apparently so could Doink! The silly thing is that Matt Bourne wouldn’t have been given such a spot, but the Clown did.
Why were Doink and Jannetty feuding again I forgot!? Still sounds like an awesome match I must track it down.
I don’t remember the exact incident that started the feud, but I recall Doink used to play “Joker-ish” practical jokes on other wrestlers. For example, I think he set up a trip wire for Bossman or something. I’m pretty sure, whatever he did to Jannetty set off the angle.
Man, having an evil clown playing it up a bit like Joker was very cool. I’m sure McMahon stumbled on this by accident.
I think this was just a rematch from a match from the previous week that ended indecisively. I don’t think there was anything more to it before that.
I’ve always thought that Matt Bourne as Doink was one of the more underrated stints in pro wrestling. You have to be really committed to get that gimmick over and he did.
Didn’t see the show, but the Doink/Marty match sounds fantastic. I was always a big Janetty fan as a kid.
Not that it really matters at all, but I seem to remember that jobber being named Reno Riggins, not Higgins.
….you called him Riggins in the actual match review. Never mind.
It does matter!
Jobbers are people too..
DTA, is not the only catchphrase that the Macho Man should sue
Steve Austin for.. there is also ”And the bottom line is” phrase, that we can hear Savage use during a couple of segments on his dvd.
Kind of wierd because I own both 24/7 and classics.com right now, and I’ve started watching Raw from July 14 on . . . and on both shows they mention Hogan. Heenan says “this is the last time we’ll see Hogan” and Vince even went “I’m not so sure about that” and he sounded like he might have brought him back before things really went south later in the year. Of course, that might have been all bullshit talk from Vince – to keep Hogan fans from changing the channel (to what? I might add, I have no idea.)
I flash-forwarded to the first November 1994 episode where Vince “says goodbye” to Randy Savage, and I’m not sure what to make of that one. Vince gives Savage a well respected send-off and yet he looks very pissed. Not pissed as in “you screwed my 17 year old daughter” – but more of a “How dare you leave the WWF” kind of way. The attitude of a boss when you tell them to go fuck themselves – they take the high road as the boss, but you can still see the hate.
Oh and I also flashed forward to a Jan 1995 Raw – the Raws from 1993 looked like they had more people than the 1995 ones did. Jesz .. .
Don’t mean to hijack Scott, but I got a feeling you’ll be reviewing the July 5 episode in about a week.
Just watched the first few minutes, which was the USS INTREPID bodyslam contest. Vince McMahon is on overdubs, but you can still hear the crowd as macho Man fails and the helichopter comes on the deck,
The fans goes nuts – screaming HOGAN HOGAN HOGAN and then (of course) Lex Luger comes out and the crowd dies. Todd Pettingill forces the crowd to do a “Lex” chant and it works, but trust me – if you could have peed on a fire when you brought Luger in as your new Hogan . . . that’s how dismal this was. Yeah they tried, but hell . . . and hingsight is 20/20 – but Luger was never going to live up to Hogan – and Vince should have never had Luger try.
If you guys want to see the Marty/Doink match, I have it up on my blog. http://dudefightz.blogspot.com