The SmarK Legacy Rant for Monday Night RAW - December 6 1993
- Taped from the same place as last week. White Plains, NY?
- Your hosts are Vince & Bobby.
Shawn Michaels v. 1-2-3 Kid
Shawn is of course still wearing the I-C title despite being stripped of it, which marked the first of many titles that he lost without dropping it in the ring. These days he just refuses to win them in the first place. Shawn slugs away in the corner and Kid fires back, and they criss-cross into a great stalemate sequence. Kid follows with a series of kicks to put Shawn on the floor, then follows with a springboard bodypress. He suplexes Shawn back in, then turns it into a bridged german suplex for two and goes to a headlock. Shawn tries a pair of suplexes to escape, but can't shake him. Finally a third one breaks the hold, but Kid entices Shawn into a chase and then tries a flying headscissors in the corner. Shawn dumps him in a nice bump, but goes after the Kid and ends up taking a bump of his own into the post. Kid follows with a dive off the apron, but Shawn powerslams him onto the floor to counter. We take a break and return with Shawn getting a backbreaker for two. Superplex is countered by Kid with a cross body attempt, but Shawn slams him on the way down and gets two. Backbreaker submission attempt follows, but Kid breaks free and gets a leg lariat for two. They collide for the double KO and Kid makes the comeback, slugging away in the corner. Leg lariat into the corner and Kid goes up with the moonsault for two. To the top again, but a senton bomb misses and we take another break. Back with Shawn hitting the superkick and then going for a Razor's Edge (complete with mocking gestures), and he actually nails it. That gets two, as Shawn picks him up, and you just know that's the cue for a run-in. Shawn hits another one and now Razor comes out, wearing the kind of shirt only worn by gay guys or big fat party animals, paired with Zubaz pants no less, and the brawl is on. Double countout at 11:00 or so. Shawn actually gives Razor a pair Razor's Edges on the floor! And people said this match was DISAPPOINTING? ***1/2 Great piece of business with a hot match and a hot angle to follow.
The Quebecers v. Bert Centano & Mike Walsh (?)
I never know these jobbers names because they talk over the intros. Jacques offers to fight the vertically-challenged Centano on his knees, but the jobber tags out instead. Johnny Polo, meanwhile, gives this match all the attention it warrants by reading a magazine at ringside while relaxing on a lawn chair. Pierre tosses Walsh around and then the short jobber comes back in and gets clobbered. Jacques backdrops Pierre onto him, then a piledriver and the cannonball finish at 4:21.
Meanwhile, Owen Hart promises that soon he'll have a surprise that will make everyone in the WWF talk about HIM.
Doink the Clown v. Tony Devito
Doink takes Devito down with an armbar and then an STF while Dink frolics in the corner. OK, clearly this isn't Matt Borne, but he's not tall enough to be Ray Licachelli yet, so it must be either Keirn or Lombardi playing the clown at this point. Doink with a backdrop suplex and an overhead belly to belly, and he goes to a side headlock. Finally he finishes with the Whoopie Cushion at 5:51 after a boring squash.
Crush v. Tony Roy
Bobby notes that this is a big weekend for Mr. Fuji, because he's celebrating the anniversary of Pearl Harbor. That's very wrong, but you have to laugh. Crush's tights attain a new level of gaudy this weekadding a stylized silver and orange graphic of his name like in the babyface days, but retaining the black and purple color scheme otherwise. Pick a damn color and stick with it! Crush pounds on Roy and chokes away on the ropes, then hangs him in the Tree of Woe for a further beating. Lots of standing around and yelling from Crush here. Crush presses him onto the top rope to finish at 3:54. OK then.
Next week: The Undertaker, Adam Bomb, The Smoking Gunns! Fatu v. Randy Savage!
But before we go, one last piece of business, as Gorilla Monsoon heads out to ringside and finally gets his ultimate revenge on Bobby Heenan, physically removing him from the broadcast position and kicking him out of the building once and for all. And so it's off to WCW for the Brain. I'm actually kind of sad watching it now, because we know that Heenan didn't really want to leave and didn't end up being particularly happy in WCW.
A memorable show with a great match, can't ask for much more than that.
Related Posts:
- The SmarK Legacy Rant for Monday Night RAW – April 26 1993
- The SmarK Legacy Rant for Monday Night RAW – May 24 1993
- The SmarK Legacy Rant for Monday Night RAW – February 28 1994
- The SmarK Legacy Rant for Monday Night RAW – February 1 1993
- The SmarK Legacy Rant for Monday Night RAW – July 12 1993
Tags: Bobby Heenan, Edge, Gorilla Monsoon, Lost, Monday Night RAW, Randy Savage, Rants, RAW, Shawn Michaels, Undertaker, WCW, WWF
IIRC, after Heenan got kicked outof the building, his suitcase flew open and rolls of stolen toilet paper came flying out.
OK, fill your boy in…sure, I could go out and find it, but I’ll let someone here tell me, since you guys know the score.
Why didn’t Heenan wanna leave? And why wasn’t he happy in WCW? For the same reason everyone wasn’t happy in WCW?
- Caliber
scrublife.wordpress.com – Top 5 Wrestling Video Games, awesome ranking of Friday The 13th movies, and, as always, slides are available in the gift shop…
I remember Heenan saying something about wanting to be closer to his daughter, who was attending the Univ. of Alabama, which is only a few hours away from Atlanta.
That’s true. He also said that he just wanted some time off and planned to take a year off but Bischoff called him to do Main Event and he did it, just mostly for the money and because it was easy and he could still see his daughter regularly.
He told a story about pitching an idea to Bischoff and was told “Bobby, you’re just an announcer, we’ll take care of that.” After that, he just cashed the check and went home.
“But whose side is he on?”
With those six words Bobby Heenan showed he was completely out of touch with the product. It’s not that the product stunk(it didn’t). It’s not that Bobby sucked as a commentator(he didn’t). It’s just that what he did, and what was going on were two totally different ways of doing wrestling, and it just seemed like a guy running out onto a football field with a baseball bat.
Spot on. He really almost ruined that moment with Hogan’s turn. And as I mentioned below, I thought he was just coasting on smart ass remarks without trying to get anyone over in WCW. Although in his defense, once the NWO came about, it was hard to play a straight heel announcer like he was used to doing.
I’m not surprised that “smart” marks continue to misinterpret Heenan’s remark.
You see, Bobby Heenan had built a career as a manager and commentator on trashing Hulk Hogan. Heenan managed various incarnations of his “Family” in feuds against Hogan for the better part of a decade, in the AWA and WWF. It was always in Heenan’s nature to cast doubt on Hogan’s motive (or simply lie about him). He had a direct hand in turning not one, but two of Hogan’s best friends against him by convincing them that Hogan was selfish and didn’t care about them, and only cared for himself. This (like much of WWF canon involving Hogan) was carried over to WCW.
Of course, he was always proven wrong, and Hogan always did “the right thing” and “saved the day” – until that night. Hogan’s turn on WCW was Heenan’s vindication. It’s the old “even a broken clock is right twice a day” adage, and it’s one of the more notable cases of WCW booking something right, down to the very last detail.
I’m not surprised that people still parrot the “Heenan screwed up” BS 13 years later, but sometimes, it’s sorely disappointing.
Do you have to be so annoying? You’re trying to be the coolest person in the room. We get it. Stop with the pop culture references to your shitty blog and stop calling yourself somebody’s “boy”. Do that crap with your friends while you’re asking a 21 year old to buy you liquor. I don’t hate you because of your age,mind you. I hate you because you think that’s what people want to see.
THANK YOU.
Welcome. As payment you may bring me a shrubbery. Not to tall though..I need to build a path..
I have a friend that always hated Gorilla Monsoon for throwing out Heenan at the end of this show. I never really understood why WWF got rid of him.
I heard Heenan wasn’t happy at WCW because they never used him beyond commentating. All his years in the business he felt he could contribute to story lines, etc.. but they just dismissed him like he meant nothing.
My friend JWLJN can expand on this, but after the show, Heenan went back to his hotel room and found a gift basket of bananas at his door with an invitation from Monsoon to drop by, and the two of them drank into the night saying their goodbyes.
I believe another factor was that WCW was willing to provide medical benefits for Heenan to have the neck surgery that he’d actually needed since his days as an active wrestler (the neck problem also led to that infamous F-bomb incident with Pillman).
Thats the reason that Heenan cited himself in one of the WWE DVDs. Im sure the other reasons are valid but that’s the one Heenan goes with in interviews.
The main reason he and Vince couldn’t come to terms was over travel costs. Heenan was getting flown in each week from his home in Atlanta or Florida or wherever down south.
In an effort to cut costs (WWF was losing big money at the time), Vince wanted all his announcers to move to Conneticut, making it cheaper to bring guys in for all the commentary tapings they were doing for their various shows. The Brain simply didn’t want to move up there, which was fairly understandable. So they parted on fairly good terms (by WWF standards anyway).
I loved Heenan in WWF, but in WCW I was not a big fan. He still hit the occasional zinger, but he didn’t get wrestlers over. He wasn’t heelish enough, particularly after the NWO started, to really harass the faces and he just seemed kind of sad. One example is from Foley’s book where he took an powerbomb from Vader on the cement and then got up. Instead of selling it, Heenan merely said some remark about excedrin headache number nine. He showed little respect for cruiser action or even the Benoit, Malenko, jericho, Eddie G. types. I know he hated Schiavone and wasn’t happy, but overall he just wasnt’ very good in WCW.
I thought Heenan was his very good typical self for all of 1994 –nobody hated Hogan better then Jessie, but Bobby was right up there. Once Nitro started, he seemed to be mailing it it much more often — and as someone else said the NWO really put him in a weird role. Honestly too, I think Heenan (or any announcer really) are much better when aren’t stuck doing a zillion hours of TV every week, especially live TV.
He was funny, but I never really loved Heenan as an announcer because I loved him as a manager (well, at the time I hated him, but that was his job- so he was great). I got in to wrestling in mid 86, at the end of Hogan/Piper- so to me, Hogan’s main foil was the Heenan Family.
As good as JJ was, to me, Bobby should have been the guy managing the Horsmen.
I think it was at Wrestlemania IV where Heenan was ringside and the camera caught him digging around in his pocket. Gorilla said something like, “look at him Jess! Obviously he’s up to no good!” I thought that was funny b/c it was showed how sneaky and devious he was that the face announcer would interpret his smallest action as an obviously nefarious maneuver.
I think, though, that the last great piece of business Heenan was a part of was in WCW in 1996, when he “coached” (not managed, because he retired as a manager) Flair and Arn Anderson against the Football Team at The 1996 Great American Bash. That was really good.
I LOVE watching these old Prime Time wrestlings with Heenan and Monsoon.
The best part of the Prime Time’s is that there is no script. The banter between them is genuine and not created in an office. That’s one of the reasons of the shows success.
Yeah you are right, that was the last great thing he was involved in. I was so stoked for that, I think that was the first WCW PPV since SuperBrawl II that I think I was really excited for.
He does this great “I’m not worried, really I’m not!” facial expression while practically shaking in the package that introduced the PPV too lol
Yeah PTW was for several years the highest rated show on cable TV too (until late 1990, early 1991 as I recall, which necessitated the change in format) but I’m sure a lot of it was due to how great their chemistry was