The SmarK Legacy Rant for Monday Night RAW - November 29 1993
- Live from White Plains, NY.
- Your hosts are Vince and Bobby.
The Steiner Brothers v. Mike Khoury & Reno Riggins
Scott takes Khoury down a couple of times, then hits him with a dragon suplex. Over to Rick for a Steinerline, and Reno reluctantly tags in. Rick runs him into the corner and Scott wraps him up on the mat and adds a dropkick, then adds the Steiner Screwdriver. Jesus, he's busting that thing out on a weekly basis on this show. Back to the other jobber, and the Frankensteiner kills him dead like H1N1 at 3:48. Or at least makes him feel lousy for a week.
Meanwhile, Jeff Jarrett tries to get a meeting with a talent agency (giving us a cameo from longtime Memphis manager Ronald Gossett) and gets thrown out of the building. Same thing would probably happen if he was trying for a job in the WWE today.
Razor Ramon v. Diesel
I'm pretty sure this would be the first-ever match between Nash and Hall. Razor works on the arm to start, but Diesel powers him down and tries a headlock. Razor gets out of that, so Diesel pounds on the back and gets the running choke. Backbreaker gets two. Sideslam gets two. Snake Eyes gets two. He goes to a bearhug, but runs into a boot in the corner. Razor with a bulldog for two and he makes the comeback, but as you'd expect, Shawn runs in for the DQ at 5:04. 1-2-3 Kid makes the save, and that would be a hell of a tag match right there. Actually, they did have that match on Action Zone in 1994, and it was ****+, come to think of it. This match was less so. *1/2
Bam Bam Bigelow v. John Crystal
Crystal is the jobber who people think is Santino Marella for some bizarre reason. Never mind he'd be way too old now, but he clearly doesn't have the unibrow! Bigelow tosses him around and goes to a neck vice, then chucks him out of the ring. Back in, more slams and a clothesline, and the enzuigiri finishes at 3:12.
Meanwhile, on Wrestling Challenge, Doink's promo is interrupted by Santa Claus, who gives him the best gift a clown can get: A midget dressed as another clown. Oh, great, so it was friggin' SANTA CLAUS who unleashed this stupid angle on the world. I always knew he'd be a crappy booker. So yeah, Dink the Clown is born. No wonder Matt Bourne got the hell out of the promotion.
Vince McMahon is out to award the Superstar of the Year trophy to Bret Hart, and for some reason also brings out runner-up Lex Luger as well. Yes, he can't even win a rigged fan vote! This, of course, was actually going somewhere. Bret's speech doesn't really say too much.
Owen Hart v. Chris Duffy
Duffy attacks to start and gets hit with a leg lariat as a result. Backdrop and he hammers away with forearms, but Duffy puts him down with a back elbow. Owen comes back with the enzuigiri, putting Duffy on the floor, and Owen follows with a pescado, and finishes with a missile dropkick and Sharpshooter at 2:42. Bobby Heenan asks the hard questions afterwards, but Owen just walks away.
Ludvig Borga v. Scott Taylor
Borga pounds him down, but misses an elbow and gets dropkicked. Taylor's offense all gets no-sold and Borga clotheslines him for a nice 180 sell, followed by a headbutt to put him down again. Torture rack finishes at 2:21.
Next week: Shawn Michaels v. The 1-2-3 Kid! Doink! Crush!
Related Posts:
- The SmarK Legacy Rant for Monday Night RAW – January 17 1994
- The SmarK Legacy Rant for Monday Night RAW – December 20 1993
- The SmarK Legacy Rant for Monday Night RAW – October 4 1993
- The SmarK Legacy Rant for Monday Night RAW – October 18 1993
- The SmarK Legacy Rant for Monday Night RAW – April 12 1993
Tags: 1994, Bobby Heenan, Bret Hart, Jeff Jarrett, Lex Luger, Monday Night RAW, RAW, Santa Claus, Santino Marella, Shawn Michaels, Steiner Brothers, Sting, Vince McMahon, WWE
I’ve been wanting to see that damn ActionZone match forever, but have never been able to find it. Bastards.
People always talk about the Evil Doink, yet, I never, ever, ever recall seeing such a thing. Any old PPV’s where Evil Doink did his thing?
- Caliber
scrublife.wordpress.com – Man Movie Encyclopedia: Double Impact, The Terminator. Wonder how many times they swear? or beat peeps up? Well, you will now. Plus, how I correct a bitch using the power of Hulkamania
I’m not sure if you’re making some sort of joke or being sarcastic for some reason, but if you’re not, then I’ll tell you that Doink fought Crush at Wrestlemania IX and subbed for Jerry Lawler against Bret Hart at Summerslam ‘93. The latter is considered by most to be a very good match; the former, not so much. Both were the original Evil Doink, and he also fought many matches on Raw in 1993, shows that Scott has been reviewing on this blog for the last several months.
Man, Crush really has some poor memories of Wrestlemania. The infamous “Mirror Doink”, getting hoisted up like a giant prize fish by Savage, jobbing out to a couple of anonymous Japanese. Of course, those are golden memories compared to his last WWE PPV appearance, so horrible that it will go without mention here.
Don’t forget WM13 were Ahmed and the OLD beat the Nation in some “street fight”. Their whole run in 1997 really exposed the Roid Warriors as overpushed old men, especially their feud with the Outlaws.
Evil Doink was also pretty good at making balloon animals btw.
Also, I don’t think “caliber” is serious about the Doink question, and is just using that as a way to promote her website…
True, but I think Brock Lesnar had the worst Wrestlemania experiences by far.
Lesnar won the WWE title at Wrestlemania XIX (and probably doesn’t even remember the one bad thing that happened to him there), then got one of the biggest heel reactions of all time at WMXX. Not too shabby!
One could argue he botched the biggest spot in his wreslting career and damn near killed himself and followed that up a year later with a match that the crowd shit upon more than anything this side of Luger v. Windham at Bash ‘91.
Didn’t Evil Doink also distract Crush in his IC Title match with HBK at KOTR 1993?
If there was one thing I loved about Bret’s smugness in his book, it was when he talked about how no matter how much Vince tried to make Luger his top face, the crowd always cheered harder for Bret. Even during the Rumble when both guys were pandering to the crowd after the double elimination.
Well, if Vince was really trying to shove Luger down the fans’ throats wouldn’t he have had him “win” this award? The more I think about it, the more it seems that Vince was ALWAYS planning on having Bret walk out of WMX with the belt, and even before the Bodyslam aboard the ship, Luger was never supposed to get the belt.Everything from Bret winning KOTR, to the dumbass countout win, though this award debacle, even the Rumble was booked to make Bret look like the guy who came back with a leg injury, while Luger couldn’t even clear out the Rumble deadweight.
If Bret seriously believes he was the fans’ choice, well good for him. I remember going to a WWF house show in 1994 during Bret’s reign, and there only being about 350 people there, most of who got up and left when Bret came out to defend the title in the Main Event. Not exactly the stuff of legend is it?
If Luger is to be believed, Vince told him months and months before WrestleMania X that he wasn’t coming out of Madison Square Garden the champion.
I suspect you’re right.
According to Luger, the “urban myth” of Luger being punished for bragging about winning the title that weekend is completely bogus. Luger says he wasn’t even in the New York City area the day/night before Wrestlemania.
It’s almost like Luger was just there to make Bret look even better, all the way to him still not putting Yoko away (granted, Mr. Perfect’s involvement ensured that Luger wasn’t outright buried from it, though you could argue he was anyway) and then Bret goes over Yokozuna clean as a whistle later that night.
It is strange. It seems like Luger was being pushed as a future champion. Yet, it just didn’t happen.
The one funny thing is, that people talk about that Lex like he had the biggest push in history. He did not. If he had had the biggest push in history, he would have beaten Yoko in less than 10 minutes and walked out of Summerslam as champ.
All of these are really compelling arguments. I’m inclined to agree that while Bret/Vince/Internet-lore has told one story history seems to point more to the idea that Luger was never to be pushed as the main guy and that the decision was made at least sometime before Summer Slam and during the “Lex Express Tour.” With the exception of his Summer Slam 1993 main event, it’s not like he was exactly the focus of the main event scene. By the Survivor Series it seemed like Yokozuna and the Undertaker were set to be the next big title feud, with Bret getting geared up for Owen post WrestleMania.
I agree with everyone that the Luger push was poorly handled – having said that I wouldn’t rule out the possibility that WWF was genuinely behind the guy but just did a bad job of booking him. Sometimes, they just screw up – big time – like they did with Orton in 2004 and Rey in 2006.
They didn’t screw up with Orton in 2004. They screwed up with him in 2002, when he could have been a good comedy heel and then later a Main Event peppy babyface. Now he’s a product of the school of Triple H.
I mean can anyone really stand Randy now, let alone when Triple H took him “under his wing” in 2002-03? They could have made Orton different in 2004, but we all know that Triple H was all about the title until the chants for Tista got so loud that Triple H took the hint and yet Tista bury him at Wrestlemania.
Orton’s “face turn” and title regin was doomed to fail, because the minute Triple H turned on him – they proved Orton was nothing without Triple H and then Triple H won the title back. Sure Triple H learned his lesson and put over Orton several times, before the boring blow off (where Trips won) at Mania this last year.
As for Rey in 06. To be honest, if Eddie hasn’t passed – Rey Rey would never have been champion, or even going for the title. He’s a cruiserweight and in real life – a little high flyer isn’t winning a real match against a big guy like Big Show.
I don’t know if Vince felt that way before the Intrepid, but by Survivor Series or so, yes, it’s not crazy to think Vince had already decided on Bret. I think Vince wanted to get more mileage of Luger/Yoko and then his Summerslam booking ended up backfiring in a way he hadn’t anticipated.
And remember the whole pre-Summerslam stipulation that SS would be Luger’s only title shot. That seemed to foreshadow a long-term build where winning the Rumble would be the only way Lex could get another shot. That makes it seem like the long-term plan during the summer was to stretch it out and ultimately go with Lex.
In the end, Vince kept his options open and went with Bret. Part of that probably had to do with the Luger angle being unable to sustain itself all the way through WM. Whether the Luger push failed more because of Lex himself or because of the booking is a matter of debate. (Personally, I think it’s a combination of factors, as there are rarely clear-cut black and white answers for stuff like this, as much as we feel the need to over-simplify things in an attempt to justify the outcome.)
I’ve always wondered if the Bret/Owen thing would have started quite the way it did if Lawler hadn’t gotten in trouble and appeared at Survivor Series as planned. Part of Vince’s decision to go with Bret could have come from Lawler’s abrupt absence. Suddenly Bret had nothing to do and it made perfect sense to immediately throw him back into the title picture.
Finally, it’s obvious that you have a real hatred for Bret. Just curious, but if Bret Hart is so awful, which star wrestlers do you actually like? If you didn’t like watching Bret, there must have been others you did enjoy. I’m not trying to be condescending or start a fight. I’m legitimately curious.
It all goes back to before the KOTR. Hogan vs Bret was planned for Summerslam 93.
There is some concern if that match had indeed happened, would it had been for the World Title. Hogan and Bret did take the promo photos for Summerslam, but in Bret’s book Bret claimed that Vince had in applied that maybe the Hogan and Bret match was not going to be for the title.
If that was the case, that means Hogan would had walked into Summerslam as champ, but the match wasn’t going to be for the title. Or Hogan would had lost the match to Yokozuna at KOTR, but would had still faced Bret at Summerslam. However I doubt that would had been the case with Hogan losing the belt at KOTR and still facing Bret. Remember Luger was turned face to be the new Hogan.
I believe Hogan and Bret was going to be for the title at Summerslam with Hogan losing to Bret. After Summerslam well its up in the air.
trying to understand WWF booking from September 1991 until about Royal Rumble 1994 hurts my brain.
If the “who do you like” is for me, well lots of guys…Undertaker, Austin, Foley, Funk, Piper, Angle, Benoit(pre-killings), Eddie, Luger, Styles, Sting and the list goes on…..
The idea that Hogan was set to drop the WWF Title to Bret at Summerslam 1993 is yet another sheet myth that has no basis in reality. Bret had now convinced himself that it is true, but that was never on the cards. It’s just some Hogan-hating IWC hack stirring shit to make Hogan look bad. Yawn.
So… the photo shoot with the title is fake, and is all a product of Bret’s stroke and concussion induced memory?
WWF Magazine also had a blurb in an regarding Hogan’s successful defense at King of the RIng and how he may be facing a “friend” at SummerSlam (in the sense that we were lead to believe all babyfaces were friends back then).
What photo shoot with the title? In Hogan’s autobiography he debunks this myth. As for Bret, well he has distorted history to suit his own agenda. There are some people who are able to convince themselves of things they know not to be true. I think they’re called psychopaths. Bret has also convinced himself that Shawn’s knee injury in 1997 was fake. Well, I’m sure the doctor who performed the surgery on Shawn’s knee didn’t think it was just a work. Likewise the marines who beat seven shades of shit out of him in Syracuse weren’t just trying to bury Douglas. Is Hogan a great guy? Is Michaels? No, but you don’t have to lie and sistort history, as both guys are bad enough in real life without these bs stories.
And Hogan was buried big-time at KOTR, certainly not a successful title defense.
In Bret’s book, he says Shawn was prancing around the lockerroom days after his speech, telling guys that his knee injury didn’t require surgery. Did he ever go under the knife?
Apparently Dr James Andrews performed surgery on Michaels’ knee around that time.
Also, just because Bret said something in his book doesn’t make it any more true than anything Flair said in his book. or that Michaels said in his book for that matter.
Anyway, the original point is that Hogan has actually done enough real things that make him an asshole, without people having to make up lies about stuff he supposedly pulled.
In the latest newz update on the HOF:
On the flight to England this past week, there was a lot of discussion between WWE creative and Vince McMahon regarding the 2010 WWE Hall of Fame class. The names discussed this week that Vince liked the most were Ted DiBiase, King Kong Bundy, Lawrence Taylor and Jake Roberts. DiBiase remains the most consistent name talked about but there is some concern that they might not be able to get Taylor, who wrestled Bam Bam Bigelow at WrestleMania 11. Obviously there is also concern about booking Jake Roberts considering his problems with alcohol and his reputation among people in the business. Roberts blew WWE off a while back for promotional work on his own DVD so saying that he would easily come for a Hall of Fame
payoff is stretching it. Regarding The Ultimate Warrior, he was talked about a week earlier but his name wasn’t seriously talked about on the flight to England this past week.
I’m convinced they’re saving Owen for the next time they do Wrestlemania in Canada, only explanation for not putting him in yet.
Bulldog should get in this time, though, and I could see them putting the Road Warriors in.
The names discussed this week that Vince liked the most were…King Kong Bundy…
I’ve got a friend who says that part of the reason Bundy has never seriously been considered before is b/c of Bundy apparently in the past has insisted that for him to be on the HoF, he’d only show up if he was in a main event (or at least highly featured match?) at that year’s WM.
I could live with King Kong Bundy Vs. The Big Show–anything beats that sumo match Show was in, right?
While the Action Zone tag match was awesome, I don’t think it would’ve been any good at that point in time since Diesel was still learning how not to suck and HBK wasn’t a God at this point.
Oh yeah, and HBK v 1-2-3 Kid was a dream match at that point, but for some reason they never could have a great match with each other. If I remember correctly, before HBK ‘left’ the WWF, he was supposed to feud with The Kid over the IC belt and think the Kid was supposed to win the belt, which would have been pretty cool.
Did Shawn and Sean ever have a one-on-one match? I don’t remember ever seeing one…
A check of history of WWE shows one from the 12/6/93 Raw that ended in a NC. So, “next week” on Raw.
Yup, plus they had another match just before WM12, which I think was better than next week’s one. Haven’t seen the 93 match since it aired, but all I remember was HBK treating Waltman like a jobber, which was why it wasn’t any good.
Mmm, no Johnny C, I was being serious. Of course, you obviously have hip detection skills as you referred to me having only XX chromosomes.
And what sort of lame-ass joke would that be by asking where I could see some Evil Doink? I’ve just never come across any in my years as a fan, due to the fact he’s never on DVD, and why on earth would I have ever bothered to watch WM9?
There’s a boatload of evil Doink on Youtube.
This guy has a ton of evil Doink stuff: http://www.youtube.com/user/rockyrack1
Doink vs. Mr. Perfect: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b1f09-ZI_24
Doink vs. Kamala: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wvu7jbqYo5Y
I’m not sure where he got the idea that you were female, but I was the one who answered your question and I also wondered if you were making some sort of a joke, due to the way you phrased it. (People always talk about the Evil Doink, yet, I never, ever, ever recall seeing such a thing. Any old PPV’s where Evil Doink did his thing?”) The “never, ever, ever” part seemed like overkill to me, like you were trying to make some sort of humorous or ironic point which I failed to recognize. If you have internet access it is pretty darn easy to find out this information on your own. You could probably read Doink’s wikipedia page and find descriptions of most of his major feuds, matches, and probably a summary of his heel and face runs, as well as who played him in each incarnation. You could probably type Evil Doink into youtube, or whatever video site you prefer, and find dozens of videos of him in action.
Note that I’m not criticizing you for asking the question, I’m all for spirited discussion, just trying to explain why we thought your question appeared to have been somewhat sarcastic in nature.
Indeed, a simple Google search like “doink heel ppv” brings up WM9 instantly, as well as YouTube promo for his WM9 match:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JNFCeow_1Mw
Also, don’t forgst that Doink was still evil at Summerslam 1993.
Oh, I know you answered first. But he also said I wasn’t serious, then went on to insult me, so, I just addressed him.
Sure, I could have googled it, but you just get the vague stuff, you know? I figured if I asked you kids, you’d know some gems, if there were any. I mean, if I wanted to find some great HBK matches, if I googled, how long would I have to look before I found out about the Action Zone tag? Or Shawn v Bret at Survivor Series 92[?]. So, I just came to the kids for the details, dig it.
In the useless information area–I was actually at this Raw taping at the Westchester County Center where they started the Diesel/Shawn vs. Razor/Kid feud. I was sitting by the entrance and I remember everyone around me being so amazed at how tiny the Kid was (remember this was the tail-end of the steroid era). The ironic thing is the amazing Action Zone match that everyone still talks about actually occurred in the same building during a Wrestling Challenge taping one year later (they taped Action Zone matches in between). I still have photos from this Raw taping and all the tapings they did from this place–good times. I miss that era.
Crystal is the jobber who people think is Santino Marella for some bizarre reason.
Santino was hosting the Shorties one month on 24/7, and intro’d a match from ‘95 b/w HHH and Crystal. He made some cryptic comment about wondering whatever happened to “this Crystal fellow” or similar. It was totally out of place and random, and seemed designed to draw attention to Crystal on purpose.
At the time I was one of the people thinking it was Santino. But the match aired again during the RAW that’s being shown during the “MNW: The Beginning” eps on 24/7, and he didn’t seem so Santino-ish the 2nd time around.
So who know what the deal is. But like I said, at the time the comparisons started, it seemed to me like they wanted people to take a look at Crystal, based on the way Santino handled him in the intro to the match.
Who trained Santino? Could be as simple a connection as that.
Or someone goofed up and mixed up Crystal with one of the before-they-were-stars jobbers floating around in those days, like Bucci or PJ Walker.
I’ve got that Action Zone match b/w HBK/Diesel and Razor/Kid on whatever compilation WWF released it on, and to be honest, after all the hype I’d heard about it, I was a little let down, I think mostly b/c the commercial breaks really killed the flow.