Pro Wrestling Love #73: Best of WWF Monday Night RAW (July-December 1993)

 Hey Yo,

Raw on Netflix has been a stinker so far besides that killer John Cena promo. I still have Punk vs Rollins to go to see if they can salvage the show. Lets hit the wayback  machine and go back to the very first year of Monday Night RAW, 1993. 

This all came out of watching a bunch of Sid matches after he died on my lunch walks. I just got really intrigued with mid-90s pro wrestling. I started watching pro wrestling in 1997 so all these wrestlers are nostalgic to me from my childhood, but I have never really done a deep dive in this era, I just seen the greatest hits. One thing stood out to me is RAW's format around this time. You would have one featured attraction match that usually opened the show and that was usually a main eventer vs upper midcarder. Then there were the squashes and one promo segment usually the King's Court. I just love the punchy 1 hour format. It is funny because everyone always says Nitro forced RAW to go to star vs star matches, but it is clear from jump they are always provided one star vs star match. Nitro just forced them to abandon squash matches. 

I really loved the booking of July, you can see in the table below how you go from the Undertaker to a great Yokozuna angle to a hot workrate match over the IC Title between Shawn and Marty to a Bret Match. It really showed the variety of RAW and how they could showcase one main eventer a week. In doing so, they avoid anyone getting stale by always rotating. 

Another reason, I focus on July 1993 as my starting point is because of the major Luger bodyslamming Yoko angle on July 4th. Before King of the Ring 1993 (June 1993), WWF was caught between past and future. Until Hulk Hogan left, they couldnt commit to a direction. Once Hogan was gone, WWF became a promotion with a clear vision. The pre-July 1993 just did not inspire me to watch it. I LOVED the Hogan vs Yoko match from King of the Ring, but it was only once Yoko won there was a cohesive vision. 

The second half of 1993 is some of the best week-to-week booking WWF ever did. Vince McMahon was never one for week to week booking because his business model was shoot an angle and usually it would take a month or two for that angle to go around his loop thus he did not need book week to week like a Southern Promotion such as Memphis. However, in 1993 with inception of RAW he tried his hand at it, with the help of Jerry Jarret from Memphis. This the year of the famous McMemphis angle where Vince tried out a prototype of the Mr. McMahon character in Memphis. I have only read about it, but it sounds fascinating. Part of this exchange was also talent as Jerry Lawler made his debut and became a permanent fixture and also Jeff Jarrett would make his debut. While not part of Memphis at the time, Smoky Mountain promoter and lead heel manager Jim Cornette would pull double duty as the manager for both WWF World Heavyweight Champion Yokozuna and the Heavenly Bodies in WWF. These additions added some real Southern flair to the WWF and I think really speak how this stretch of WWF Booking feels really different than other time periods. Major angle include: Luger slamming Yoko on the Intrepid, Yoko breaking Crush's ribs, finalizing Razor Ramon's babyface turn, the debut of Cornette (which has to be seen, Heenan/Cornette crush it), Quebecers week to week work, Shawn vacating the IC Title Crush's heel turn on Savage, planting the seeds of Owen Hart's turn on Bret.

The last point I want to make is I think you could make assertion that Quebecers & Johnny Polo were the MVPs of Monday Night RAW from their Tag Title Victory in September until they lost the titles to the Headshrinkers in May of 94. They were the ones holding down the fort week in, week out with great matches and interesting stories. They had the simultaneous story of being a part of the Survivor Series main event as members of the Foreign Fanatics against Lex Luger's All-Americans while also working an overarching storyline with 1-2-3 Kid & Marty Jannetty that was blown off at the first anniversary of Monday Night RAW in epic fashion. I will continue extolling their virtues in the next blog post. 

Table summarizes all the matches I feel warrant the distinction of being considered featured attraction. DNW = Did Not Watch. As my father in-law always says, "He only drink great, greater and greatest wines", I am in that phase of my life when it comes to wrestling matches. The highlighted in yellow are ones I am interested in coming back and watching. 

Date	Match	Rating
July 5, 1993	1-2-3 Kid vs Blake Beverly	DNW
July 5, 1993	Undertaker vs Samu	3
July 12, 1993	Yokozuna vs Crush	DUD
July 19, 1993	Marty Jannetty vs Shawn Michaels	3.25
July 26, 1993	Bret Hart vs Bam Bam Bigelow	DUD
August 2, 1993	Randy Savage vs Doink The Clown	2.5
August 9, 1993	Tatanka vs Mr. Hughes	DNW
August 16, 1993	1-2-3 Kid vs Ted DiBiase	DNW
September 13, 1993	Steiners vs Quebecers	3.5
September 20, 1993	Scott Steiner vs Pierre	DNW
September 27, 1993	Tatanka vs Rick Martel	DNW
September 27, 1993	Quebecers vs 1-2-3 Kid & Barry Horowitz	3
October 4, 1993	IC Title Battle Royale	DNW
October 11, 1993	Razor Ramon vs Rick Martel	3.75
October 18, 1993	Randy Savage-Crush Summit	N/A
October 25, 1993	1-2-3 Kid vs Marty Jannetty	3
November 1, 1993	Razor Ramon vs Bastion Booger	DNW
November 1, 1993	Smoking Gunns vs Well Dunn	DNW
November 8, 1993	Scott Steiner vs Ludvig Borga	DNW
November 15, 1993	Lex Luger vs Pierre	3
November 29, 1993	Razor Ramon vs Diesel	2.5
December 6, 1993	Shawn Michaels vs 1-2-3 Kid	3.75
December 13, 1993	Randy Savage vs Fatu	DNW
December 20, 1993	Tatanka vs Ludvig Borga	DNW
December 27. 1993	Marty Jannetty vs Johnny Polo	DNW

Most of these matches I watched in the last 6 months, but few were many years ago. The reason I bring this up is thought I gave Steiners vs Quebecers 4 stars and that was going to be my selection for the best match of RAW July 1993-December 1993, but I only gave it 3.5 stars. I still recommend that one and methinks I shafted Shawn vs Marty, which PWI 1993 match of the year. I should go back and watch those two. Based on my ratings it comes down to two matches: Razor Ramon vs Rick Martel for the Vacant IC Title or Shawn Michaels vs 1-2-3 Kid both tied at 3.75. I will give the slight nod to Ramon vs Martel as it is a bit better structured. I would say those four matches are the must-watches from this time period. 

Undertaker vs Samu - WWF RAW 7/5/93

I was so impressed with Taker against Yoko; I wanted to watch some of his work from 1993 but unfortunately in 1993 he was squandered by being married to Giant Gonzalez. Taker deserved a lot better than that. This was his highest ranked match on Cagematch for 1993 no real story between these two in particular, but it is a good match. The angle is Mr. Hughes in alliance with Harvey Whippleman (the manager of Giant Gonzalez) stole the Urn and beat up Paul Bearer. Now I don’t know if Taker/Hughes was the original plan for Summerslam and Gonzalez replaced Hughes or if Hughes was a henchman. The story of the match is how would Undertaker fare without the Urn and Bearer.

Turns out, Taker is actually a cruiser weight and the Urn just put a lid on his athletic abilities. He does a drop-down, blows a leapfrog. He does a drop toehold to the amazement of the Macho Man but Vince no-sells it. Then he does a drop kick and even Vince has to agree this is a different Undertaker. Samu takes advantage of a missed clothesline and some Afa distraction but Taker comes roaring back with a choke and whips Samu pillar to post. A bit disappointed with the random side slam that sets up The Samu diving headbutts. On the third, Undertaker sits up. Chokeslam. Tombstone.

Fatu seems like the better Headshrinker but Samu is ok. I enjoyed the elegance of the match. An unexpected shine. Samu gets his near fall. Zombie Sit-up, Two Big Bombs that’s all she wrote. Effective. ***

WWF World Heavyweight Champion Yokozuna vs Crush - WWF RAW 7/12/93

One thing that really surprised me about Sid when I was watching his stuff is I don’t think I had watched a Sid match from before 1996 in my life. I think starting to watch wrestling in 1997 and focusing on the classics in my reviews I am missing a lot of stuff. Yokozuna is someone outside of two Bret matches I have never really seen either. So I am interesting in getting acquainted with him.

The booking from WWF is really strong after the disaster that was WrestleMania IX get the belt off Hogan and immediately run an angle with Yoko. The Bodyslam challenge is something I think I have seen but I should go back and watch it. Now immediately a week after that we have a title match against a credible upper mid card baby face challenger. This is first time since Superstar Graham in 1977 that WWF is pushing a heel champion.

In the smattering of Crush, I have seen I am not a huge fan and he is definitely the lesser wrestler here. That being said I didn’t think Yokozuna was all that great either. It is impressive how fast he can run and that he can take some big bumps but the match was pretty damn boring until the finish. I thought he over-bumped early on the Crush shine falling out of the ring for what amounted to a love tap. Crush misses a charge. We get some throat thrusts and some nerve pinches. Crush fires up and knocks him down with a lariat. Again I would have had Yoko absorb two and bump on the third. One crazy thing about the crowd was that they sang the Star Spangled Banner a capella unprompted and busted out into USA chant. This shit was over in 1993 Manhattan, brutha. Back to the match, so Crush gets a flying clothesline goes up for a second but Fuji hits him with the Japanese flag. Yoko slams him on the floor, belly to belly and BANZAI~! For the win!

Post-match angle is better, Yoko hits three additional Banzai with eventually Savage seeing enough and saving Crush which I believe sets up the Crush heel turn and Mania match with Savage. Pretty boring match just really need to watch the finish. 

WWF Intercontinental Champion Shawn Michaels vs Marty Jannetty - WWF RAW 7/19/93

These two definitely know how to whip a match into a fever pitch. Shawn has since added Diesel to his act which paid immediate dividends as he won the IC belt back. Marty turns his back to Shawn to look at Diesel and Shawn attacks. Great way to get over the presence of the big man. Marty impressively lands on his feet on a back drop. Another great shine with Marty looking crisp and Michaels bumping like a madman. Nothing out of this world. Everything is upbeat and well-done. Marty hits a DDT. 1-2-3! Lightning strikes twice! Wait! Michael's foot was on the ropes, Diesel points it out and the match is restarted. I like this use of Diesel. Not can he intimidate and interfere, but he can watch Michaels' back if injustice is to occur. Jannetty continues with the shine suplex and backbreaker. Jannetty should have been a solid mechanic in the midcard and tag scene if not for personal demons. Definite anchor on this match is Michaels' heat segment. Nothing memorable transition and chinlock city otherwise. Michaels would get better on top, never his strong suit, but very weak here. Jannetty crotching him to get out of a front facelock almost makes the front facelock worth it. Again they work a ton of great nearfalls for Jannetty that get awesome heat. Jannetty takes an insane bump flying over the top rope on a missed crossbody down on the floor. Diesel helps him back in 1-2-3! I actually dug the finish a lot. The bump was insane and really puts over the move as high risk.

 PWI Match of the Year for 1993 and I don't even think it is the best match in WWF in 1993. Fun shine, lame heat segment and red hit finish, a great way to spend 15 minutes of your life, but nothing that will change your life. ***1/4

Bret Hart vs Bam Bam Bigelow - WWF RAW 7/26/1993

What a disappointment this match was. It was hovering between average and sucking but when Lawler came out bombed about as hard as any stand up comedian has ever bombed, this was an atrocity. It didnt help that this was half the episode of RAW. Stu & Helen Hart were in attendance at the Manhattan Center. Lawler comes out as Bret is about to put on the Sharpshooter. It shouldve been three jokes top. The first time he said he couldnt understand Stu it was funny and the couple produced more tragedies than Shakespeare is a legitimately good line, BUT they needed to go home after that. Lawler's stand up routine dragged and Bam Bam's beatdown dragged. It was brutal. You could hear a pin drop in the arena. Bret made his comeback to crickets. He hit a DDT and got counted out, but he was too late Lawler had already fled.

As for the body of the match, I was shocked at how heatless and plodding the match was. I remember really liking the KOTR finals match and I read my review after watching the match and writing this review and it sounded great. This match was anything but. A large part of that is Bam Bam Bigelow just isnt really all that good. I am just underwhelmed over and over by him. He has the great Lawler match when he was green. He has unexpectedly great match with RVD and the super fun squash with Spike. I have not seen the Spain 1993 match against Bret in forever and I know that is liked even more than KOTR finals so I should check that out. His offense is the definition of plodding clubbering. People like Hogan and Taker get accused of being slow, and it is such bullshit, Bigelow is brutally dry, BUT he can do a cartwheel. Gimme a break. Massive eye roll. Bret does his best. This pales in comparison to the Taker/Samu match I just watched and the Bret/Fatu match from earlier in the year. Bret gets beat down early, makes a mini-comeback. He does a senton sort of move which hurts his knee. Bigelow does a couple slams and headbutts. I like that it is missed moves by Bam Bam like a missed headbutt or a missed dropkick that gives Bret his opportunity to go on offense. Bret does not really respect the size difference or the knee selling with a belly to back suplex and back body drop. The sleeper was a nice touch by Bret. It was the usual moveset otherwise. Oh the Bulldog came out really good. 

Stick with KOTR '93. This match is not good to begin with and it craters once Lawler comes out. One thing I will say is Luna with Bam Bam made Bam Bam feel like a main event act. Not the best Bret match. 

Randy Savage vs Doink The Clown - WWF RAW 8/2/93

I knew I should temper my expectations with a baby face Randy Savage match but Doink has such a killer 1993 I thought maybe just maybe this would be great but no it is just fine. The Randy Savage baby face formula is take a ton of heat and come back with 2-3 big moves for the win. We didn’t even get the Elbow Drop. 
 

It does start promising with Savage revved up bringing a chair in the ring but in the chaos Doink takes over. He works a great Boston Crab using the ropes and working the leg. He works some more holds. He misses the Whoopie Cushion and Savage rolls to the floor and goes under the ring and the Macho Midget appears. Savage gets a body slam outside the ring and an inside cradle to win. Predictably the Macho Midget bites Doink’s ass and he sells it well.

There are two things that could’ve easily made this match better. If Dink or another Doink (Doink promised three Doinks the week prior on RAW) interfered then the Macho Midget makes sense to even the odds. Without that, I don’t understand the point of the Macho Midget. The heel needs to cheat first to necessitate the baby face throwing it back in his face. I think a more climatic finish would be the other thing that would help. It was a solid match but not as great as it could’ve been. 

WWF World Tag Team Champions Steiners vs Quebcers - WWF RAW 9/13/93 Quebec Province Rules 

Reading some other reviews of this match, it seems the Quebecers were very new and that there was not much of build. It seems likely that Steiners were having a contract dispute this was a way to get the titles off them without hurting them in case they did re-commit or if they suddenly left they wouldn't be champs. The key clause in Quebec rules is of course the title can change on DQ which pretty much telegraphs the finish. There was apparently no build to this or why the hell the Steiners would agree to this. The Steiners shine is a bit clunky. The moves are good. I liked Rick's powerslams and Scotty's Tiger Driver which The Brain tries to sell as a piledriver as piledrivers are illegal in this match. They did a great job teasing DQs like Rick almost doing a piledriver, jumping off the top or clotheslining someone over the top and each time Scotty has to stop him. There was a lot of awakwardness in the beginning. Rick hit this weird splash and sold like he was on the hurt. Weird transitions and then Scotty would just hit a massive suplex. Once Johnny Polo came out and they went to the heat segment I thought this picked up. Basic transition Pierre clobbers Scotty from behind running the ropes and then Jacques slugs him. The heat segment was terrific just big bomb after big bomb. In terms of offense this match was great. It was juts four big dudes chucking each other. I loved the double team snake eyes on ropes. Tons of great double teams involving slamming the partner onto Scott. Jacques and Pierre looked vicious. Loved the cheating nonstop. Great climax with Boston Crab/legdrop combo only for Rick to save. Finish was pretty lame Rick cleans house, Scotty hits the Frankensteiner, but then gets the hockey stick after clobbering Johnny and cant resist the temptation of using it and that triggers the DQ and the loss of the titles. 

It is a Steiners match so it is big, dumb fun. Quebecers felt like heel Steiners with all their BIG offense and tons of great double teams. Some awkwardness early on, not much in terms of flow, but the heat segment ruled. I love some big offense so this was a good fireworks match. ***1/2

WWF World Tag Team Champions Quebecers vs 1-2-3 Kid & Barry Horowitz - WWF RAW 9/27/93

The Quebecers had just defeated The Steiners two weeks back in an awesome match under the convoluted Province of Quebec Rules match. Highly recommend that match. This kicks off the Quebecers vs 1-2-3 Kid feud which climaxes with Kid & Marty winning the Tag Team Titles at the 1 year anniversary of RAW in an awesome match which I have called one of two best non-Bret, non-Shawn matches of WWF 93-97.

Quebecers claim they will have a high profile title defense. Raven as Johnny Polo is just so weird to me. It doesn’t feel right. They are in New Haven so he is wearing Harvard gear. That popped me. Instead it is against Miracle Jobber Connection of Barry Horowitz & Reno Riggins. Vince feels robbed and cheated. Wait! What’s that?!? Reno has the flu! Barry wants to choose a new partner and he chooses the 1-2-3 Kid. The Quebecers laugh it off and say you’re on. Bobby is worried about this.

The Quebecers were the 90s WWF answer to the Midnight Express. Good stooges, great bumpers and killer offense. The whole match is 1-2-3 Kid, Horowitz does two maybe three moves. Kid starts off red hot with his karate and speed. The Quebecers are betwixt and between. It is dropkicks for everybody as even Horowitz gets in on the action. A cheap shot from behind sets up the heat segment on the Kid. Lots of MX style offense. Total Elimination looked killer. They take turns body slamming each other on the Kid. Lots of double teams. Jacques misses a reverse crossbody. Kid BLASTS him with a kick. Jacques collapses to the floor and he is out cold! This sold more for comedy than it would be today and that fits the Quebecers style. That crooked ref Earl Hebner says the match must continue as a virtual handicap match! Johnny Polo do something!

Pierre is kicking Horowitz ass with a middle rope leg drop and a middle rope headbutt. Pierre slams Horowitz at the Kid’s feet to prove a point. He sends the Kid flying. He wants revenge for Jacques! Pierre plays with his food. KID BLASTS PIERRE WITH A KICK! Pierre out of instinct pulls the top rope down and Kid careens to the floor! I think we have a double KO situation. Polo tosses Kid back in and Pierre drapes the arm over for a cover.  

This is a nice piece of business. You get the Kid’s feet over as lethal. Jacques had to be carted out and Pierre was essentially knocked out. Kid has gone from plucky underdog now to a lethal weapon. The campy Quebecers are the perfect people to put him over. They still treat Horowitz as a total jobber so Kid looks like a superstar in this Herculean effort taking on and taking out both World Tag Team Champions. Now if only he had a better partner… ***

Razor Ramon vs Rick Martel - WWF RAW 10/11/93 Vacant WWF Intercontinental Championship

Vince McMahon brings history teachers to tears across the country when he declares that Christopher Columbus was Hispanic and sailed for the Queen of England (Columbus was Italian and sailed for the King & Queen of Spain). Usually when someone says "they dont teach you this in history class", it is either wrong or it was taught and they just werent paying attention. 

Fantastic match. I could have sworn I seen this match, well if I did, I dont remember it being this good. I thought Martel was fabulous in this match, his last best match until his brief resurgence in WCW in 1998. Martel really pushed the pace. I loved during the shine, he would pepper in offense thus making Razor EARN the shine. It was a slight wrinkle and it forced Razor to overcome and walk through Martel's offense making Razor's offense more compelling. Razor worked his usual specialties like the Sack O' Shit (Fallaway Slam) and his solid base of arm work. Martel even took his slingshot splash into the ring. The match really picked up after the ad break where Martel had a very strong heat segment. This was different from your run of the mill WWF heat segment. Martel really threw out the bombs. This felt more like All Japan than WWF. Bodyslam on the outside kicks off. Great Saito Suplex and general back work. TWO Boston Crabs! Razor gets the ropes on the first, Martel peppers in a sidewalk slam and then a second Boston Crab. Razor muscles out of the Boston Crab, great series of nearfalls. Razor comes back a little too neatly for my tastes. Something more creative OR Martel missing a move would be better. I did like Martel fighting through the apparent, customary Super Back Suplex from Razor to hit a crossbody to get one last nearfall. Then Razor polished it off with a Razor Edge. I think one missed Martel move, a consolidation move by Razor followed by the Razor's Edge would have elevated match slightly more. This was awesome! 

Cagematch has this as Scott Hall's 8th best match. I dont disagree with their rating. I have this at *** 3/4 which on their scale is 7.5 and the aggregate rating is 7.24 so pretty close. I just cant believe this is Scott Hall's 8th best. I feel like he has to have more top ranked matches. I will definitely have to make a list. Regardless, this match is a ton of fun, highly recommended. *** 3/4 

Marty Jannetty vs 1-2-3 Kid - WWF RAW 10/25/93

There’s a world where Marty & Kid are the Rockers of the 90s and they rule the WWF New Gen tag team scene in glorious fashion. Their title victory over the Quebecers is 1 of 2 matches I think is the best non-Bret, non-Shawn WWF Matches of 1993-1997. After the DiBiase addendum to the Ramon program, the Kid has struck out on his own. Last month, he single-handledly showed up both Quebecers, WWF World Tag Team Champions. He knocked out Jacques to the point where he got farted to the back and he knocked out Pierre and it was only due to instinct and Johnny Polo that the Quebecers retained. Now here he is pitted against fellow baby face and recent IC Champion. 
 

Pretty basic baby face vs baby face wrestling here. Basic chain wrestling, lots of symmetry. I thought Kid was more aggressive than Marty. I don’t know if that is by design or if that is just a difference in their personalities. Kid gets some nice kicks and a Victory Roll. Marty gets a nice counter powerbomb. The aggrieved Johnny Polo is out to watch. He trips Marty and Kid has no problem immediately pouncing on Marty for a near fall. Kid misses a somersault splash from the top. Now it is Polo’s turn to trip Kid. Marty at least shows some frustration but Marty takes the cover. Kid nails a beautiful German after a series of suplexes from Marty. I agree with Brain Marty is wrestling this match lethargically. Marty wakes up with a stiff elbow. Kid nails the same Karate Kick that KO’d Jacques. Marty collapses to the outside. Polo pushes Marty out of the way of a diving Kid! SPLAT! Double Countout! Polo is very amused by his antics. 
 

Marty & Kid team up and kick Polo’s ass. Great double super kick that feels very 21st century. Marty & Kid feel perfect as a tag team. I want to rewatch the title change with Quebecers now. This match is alright. I thought Kid brought it but Marty dragged ass. *** 

Lex Luger vs Pierre - WWF RAW 11/15/93

A couple of interesting notes: this is the highest rated match of Luger’s derided WWF tenure according to Cagematch. It is non-obvious what the answer to the question is and if this ends up being the case then it was truly a pathetic run. Also interesting is this would be the peak of Luger’s push which would roughly date from July 4, 1993 to WrestleMania X. It seems this was his longest, most high profile RAW singles match of that stretch. He is likes but he is NOT over. He is nowhere near Hogan or Savage. The fans seem to be more into the USA vs World storyline but you could probably stick any American wrestler in Luger’s spot and expect the same reaction. As a Luger fan, that’s a bummer.

The match is good but that’s more thanks to Pierre than Luger. Pierre really brought the energy. He took some hard bumps and did some big high spots. I love Luger but he just not wrestling like he did in that 88-91 stretch. Way too many punches which is not his style. He jumpstarts the match with punches. He whips Pierre from pillar to post with Pierre taking great buckle bumps BUT the shine just doesn’t have any oomph. Raven as Johnny Polo is just so weird. Pierre has a couple false starts into heat but when Luger is In the ropes he charges and knocks Luger out of the ring. He slams Luger into hard metal objects. Polo teases hitting Luger with the mallet but never does. We get some cool highspots from Pierre like Vaderbomb, Piledriver, a crazy top rope leg drop and a missed Cannonball. Luger puts the brakes on as Pierre takes a hard Bret Bump into the buckles. Couple clotheslines, powerslam, decks Johnny Polo and Bionic Forearm finishes it for our American Hero.

I get some clarity around Survivor Series. So apparently Tatanka was originally slated to be on the All-Americans but was injured by Foreign Fanatics which is why Undertaker is on the team aaaahhhhh that makes so much more sense. Luger blasting Pierre with his Bionic Forearm is why Crush joins the Foreigners. I will say based on the highlight package to open RAW that Crush heel turn had some juice! So a good idea to get him in a main event slot. Pierre’s offense & bumping pushes this above average but Luger is just not clicking in the WWF. ***

WWF Intercontinental Champion Razor Ramon vs Diesel - WWF RAW 11/29/93

A non-title bout. Shawn Michaels is back in WWF and he is disputing Ramon's Intercontinental Championship as Michaels has never lost it. This leads to of course the very famous Ladder Match. It is a great angle and a perfect use of the Ladder Match. It makes sense that Ramon takes on HBK's heater prior to the match to put some stank on the feud. 

Short match, but we do see, is pretty good. It is a Kliq Match so Razor is very giving and really lets Diesel shine. You can see the Diesel push is starting. He got his own program coming out of Summerslam with Mr. Perfect. While IRS was the leader of his team at Survivor Series, he was definitely the star of the team (also included Adam Bomb & Rick Martel). They establish Diesel's size advantage (although Razor is a big boy). Diesel works the back really well. It is laser-focused. It is varied and he keeps it moving. The use of the straddle on the back, the sidewalk slam. The bearhug. The Big Boot & Snake Eyes coming out of the first bearhug into the second bearhug. Good stuff. Razor makes his comeback out of his second bearhug with the second rope bulldog (love that move) and punches. He is going to do the Razor's Edge, but Shawn Michaels comes in and attacks Razor. He wants to piledrive Razor on the IC Title, but Razor reverses and 1-2-3 Kid makes the save. All nothing like a Kliq love-in. This sets up Shawn Michaels vs 1-2-3 Kid the next week. Looking forward to that. This could have been great, but more of a set up for next week and thats fine. I like their Superstars Sprint the next year thats the IC Title switch.  

Shawn Michaels vs 1-2-3 Kid - WWF RAW 12/6/93

This looks fan-fucking-tastic when you’ve been watching a metric shit ton of New Generation WWF. This is during HBK’s fake IC title reign. I am surprised this isn’t talked up more because this completely different than anything else on WWF TV. This is downright Japanese workrate shit a precursor to WCW cruiserweight stuff. It is very avant-garde for WWF and really foreshadows what is to come. 

Kid comes out red hot. The one thing is Kid’s punching sucks. It will be interesting to see if he ever gets better at that. I can’t remember Syxx or X-PAC’s punch. They cut a great pace. Here are some of the high spot highlights: Strong dive to the floor by Kid. Shawn takes a weird bump into the post. He hooked it and spun out that I thought maybe he blocked it but I think he was supposed to hit. Kid eats a beautiful power slam off the apron to the floor. That was wicked. Beautiful German Suplex! Lots of movement, a dive and a suplex. Very different than most WWF.

Also this is an interesting combination because Kid can actually slam/suplex Shawn which he normally can’t do that in WWF. Also Shawn can play the bigger bully heel a role he usually couldn’t play in WWF.

Kid works a great side headlock but runs up the ropes one too many times and Michael’s suplexes him. Michaels works the backbreaker and in a rarity can really be that bully heel here. Kid gets a   heel kick. Kid misses a somersault splash from the top rope. Crashes and burns. Back from commercial and Superkick (not quite sweet or musical yet). Shawn who was feuding with Razor over who was the real IC Champion hits TWO Razor Edges and they looked GREAT! Again that’s Shawn getting to play bully heel which he never gets a chance. Razor saves on the third attempt. The match gets thrown out. Diesel slugs Razor from behind the curtain. Shawn HITS TWO RAZOR EDGES ON SCOTT HALL! Damn I mean that is a big boy for Shawn to get up! He must have ate his Wheaties that morning. It didn’t look super good because it had to be done on concrete/floor so Shawn safely put Razor down but just hoisting him up and down was impressive.

It was a spot fest but with character. Shawn was the bully heel and Kid was the plucky underdog. It was not overtly cooperative. It was not a weird a motion smoothing match. They took their time and made the high spots stand out. A really good 90s workfare match. *** 3/4

Pro Wrestling Love vol. 69: History of the WWF World Heavyweight Championship 1993-1994

 Hey Yo, 

Thank you to Charles aka Loss @PWO aka @pwoloss on Twitter for urging me to do this for Season for Giving. This year was a low productivity year for me with regards to watching and reviewing classic pro wrestling. Between getting married (greatest moment of my life) and work being crazy (trying to launch a new product), there was little time for anything else. Then a curious thing happened, one of my all-time favorites died, Sid Vicious. Rest in Peace, Sid. I started watching Sid's career from the beginning (Skyscrapers) on my Lunch walks and reviewing the matches as I walked. Yes, the bulk of these reviews that you will read are done completely from memory and written on an iPhone. :) Watching Sid in 1995 WWF, triggered me to watch even more WWF from the New Generation Era, which brings me to the topic at hand. 

I have watched a veritable shit ton of World Wrestling Federation matches from 1993-95 and I am ready to compile a Pro Wrestling Love blog on one specific aspect of the era. I have watched the vast majority of all WWF World Heavyweight Title Matches in 1993 & 1994 (still working my way through Big Daddy Cool's title reign). Big shout to Cagematch an excellent resource to find all those hidden WWF title defenses you never hear about. 

For instance, I would have deduced based on RAW debuting in January 1993 that the odds were Bret Hart had the first ever WWF World Heavyweight Title Match on RAW, BUT I would have never guessed in a million years the challenger was Fatu. It was a smartly booked match as Bret was going into a title defense against the gargantuan Yokozuna at WrestleMania. This was a good teaser against a mini-Yokozuna and for the those in the know, Yokozuna's shoot cousin. 

Another really cool RAW Title Defense this exposed me to was Yokozuna against the Macho Man Randy Savage. This was a killer match and something more people need to watch because it is a bitchin' Randy Savage performance in an era where nobody thinks of Savage having killer matches. 

I have really enjoyed watching WWF through this threadline. There have been huge surprises: Hulk Hogan vs Yokozuna King of the Ring 1993 is an all-time Hogan classic. It was a fist-pump, testosterone injected my veins killer classic. It was the type of larger than life, popcorn, action movie blockbuster they just dont make in pro wrestling anymore. Yokozuna is not a guaranteed for a great match, but he is capable of delivering the goods. Before this project, I went from seeing two Yokozuna matches, to all these, I have much more appreciation for him.   

And there have disappointments: I am a massive Lex Luger fan, but I have never watched a single match from his ignominious WWF tenure. It was truly terrible. It was like he forgot how to wrestle. People can blame the booking all they want, but when he was given his two biggest opportunities main eventing Summerslam and Survivor Series he laid an egg. There was no hint of the Lex Luger from NWA/WCW. All his charisma was sapped from him, he just wrestled like a robot and did not do anything interesting. Sometimes, the best way to prove a point is a counterexample. If you watch Survivor Series main event, which I included as a bonus match review, you can see how much better Undertaker's chemistry is with Yokozuna. In all of two minutes, their freaky deaky chemistry is on full display and you want to see that singles match ASAP and they deliver a really good match in Royal Rumble that is marred by the very peculiar post-match angle. Unfortunately the Survivor Series rematch does not live up to the potential these two had with each other. Another counterexample is Hulk Hogan. Both Hogan and Luger were in the same role: American Hero versus big, bad foreign menace. Watch King of the Ring vs Summerslam, it is night and day. Hogan gives one of his most selfless performance and just plays up the over the top nature of the match to the hilt. Luger is so reserved and plays it small, it kills the match. It was massive bummer to see a wrestler I love who often gets a bum rap to prove the haters right and basically shit the bed for 2.5 years. I will still defend Lex Luger in NWA/WCW to the hilt. 

As for the Bret Hart tenure, there is a lot less in the way of  hidden matches. The 1-2-3 Kid title defense is still considered one of the best RAW matches of all time. The Owen Hart matches from Summerslam and Action Zone have made WWE DVD sets and are very popular among fans. The Summerslam cage match is very polarizing. The majority of people herald as a classic. I am in the vocal minority that thinks it is a big, fat, boring DUD and I lay out my case below. As a Bob Backlund superfan, I love his 1994 push and his chemistry with Bret is incredible. I often say Bret Hart is the best subtle heel in the business. It is his true talent that he holds over all others. To me, he was the real heir to the 50-70s NWA World Champions. He would heel himself just enough to get the challenger over, but enough that he could maintain his credibly and respect of his fans. That was on fully display in his July title defenses against 1-2-3 Kid and Bob Backlund (before the turn). The Survivor Series match is very long, but still worthwhile. The biggest surprise and disappointment is actually how few Bret Hart title defenses there are and how few angles in general surround him. He was an afterthought in the Summer of '94 compared to Ted DiBiase's Faker Taker and Ted DiBiase trying to buy Lex Luger (it was Tatanka all along!). Based on that the Million Dollar Man was the biggest start of Summer of '94. The Bret Hart/Owen Hart storyline was really well done from October of 93 through WrestleMania X. It then sputtered out. They added the Anvil & Bulldog but there was not much in the way of another hot angle. I was surprised how little Bret was featured on WWF TV after his title win and how little his challengers were varied outside of Owen & Backlund. 

Overall, 1994 feels like a much more boring year than 1993, BUT because WrestleMania X had two of the best WWF matches of all time...Bret/Owen and Shawn/Razor Ladder Match and the well-respected Bret Hart was the World Champion, I think 1994 is overrated as a year for WWF. While 1993, had the shitshow of WrestleMania IX (that was due to stupid Hogan polticking) and Lex Luger flopping as the Ace Babyface, but the week to week TV was a million times better. There were hot angles up and down the card and while there are no classics on the level of Bret/Owen and Shawn/Razor, there is plenty of great wrestling throughout the year. 1993 WWF feels the only year Vince booked WWF like a weekly Southern territory. I am sure that had something to do with the USWA talent exchange...Jerry Jarrett helping out with booking and Lawler & Cornette coming up full time. I highly recommend watching the RAWs from 1993 they are a hoot. The 1994 WWF RAWs are either boring with long gaps between angles or poorly executed angles like Faker Taker and the buyout of Luger. Just a brief overview of 1993 vs 1994 WWF, whhich I hope to get to in a later blog. 

Without any further aideu...all the WWF World Heavyweight Title Defenses from 1993 & 1994. 

WWF World Heavyweight Title Matches in 1993 & 1994:

                                                   Bret Hart Title Reign (1993 portion only)

Date	Match	Rating
1/4/93	Bret Hart vs Yokozuna	Could Not Find
Royal Rumble 1993	Bret Hart vs Razor Ramon	3.5
RAW 3/1/93	Bret Hart vs Fatu	3.5
3/9/93	Bret Hart vs Yokozuna	Could Not Find
WrestleMania IX	Bret Hart vs Yokozuna	3.25

Yokozuna Title Reign

(Skipping Hulk Hogan's Title Reign as he has no title defenses)

Show	Match	Rating
WrestleMania IX	Bret Hart vs Yokozuna	3.25
King of the Ring 1993	Hulk Hogan vs Yokozuna	4
6/14/93	Yokozuna vs Hacksaw Jim Duggan	Could Not Find
RAW 7/5/93	Yokozuna vs Crush	DUD
MSG 8/13/93	Yokozuna vs Bret Hart	4
Summerslam Spectacular	Yokozuna vs Hacksaw Jim Duggan	3.25
Summerslam 1993	Yokozuna vs Lex Luger	DUD
Survivor Series Showdown 1993	Yokozuna vs Bret Hart	3.75
Royal Rumble 1994	Yokozuna vs Undertaker	4
RAW 2/21/94	Yokozuna vs Randy Savage	3.75
WrestleMania X	Yokozuna vs Lex Luger	DUD
WrestleMania X	Yokozuna vs Bret Hart	3.5

                                        Bret Hart 1994 WWF World Heavyweight Title Reign

Date	Match	Rating
WrestleMania X	Yokozuna vs Bret Hart	3.5
Yokohama 5/7/94	Bret Hart vs Randy Savage	Have not watched yet
King of the Ring 1994	Bret Hart vs Diesel	3.5
RAW 7/11/94	Bret Hart vs 1-2-3 Kid	4.25
Superstars 7/30/94	Bret Hart vs Bob Backlund	4.25
Superstars (Quebec) 8/2/94	Bret Hart vs Owen Hart	Could Not Find
Summerslam 1994	Bret Hart vs Owen Hart	DUD
Action Zone 10/23/94	Bret Hart vs Owen Hart	3.75
Survivor Series 1994	Bret Hart vs Bob Backlund	4.25

Bolded Matches are recommended as must watches. 

Bob Backlund dropped the title to Diesel at Madison Square Garden on November 26. 1994 in 8 seconds. I did not feel the need to review that. :) Diesel had one recorded title defense in 1994 against Bob Backlund on December 14, 1994 at a Superstars TV Taping, but didnt look like it was aired on Superstars so I did not go looking for it. 

Match Reviews

   Bret Hart 1993 WWF World Heavyweight Title Defenses 

WWF World Heavyweight Champion Bret Hart vs Razor Ramon - WWF Royal Rumble 1993

I am surprised no one had made a thread for this. Unique match. Razor was so strongly pushed out the gate but it was the Kid angle that got him over forever. It is weird what gets people over and doesn’t. Bret’s first reign feels so random and Shawn & Razor are interesting challengers.

Textbook Bret Hart match which I probably underrate. My issue with textbook Bret Hart is that there is not much struggle within a segment. They have very logical matches and they are very easy to remember. Slugfest to start which looked great both men have great punches. Razor knees the top turnbuckle. Bret works the leg pugnaciously. Bret is an all-time great grinder. He is one of the few that can make heel in peril work on top. Bret takes his sick sick sliding abdomen steel post shot. Hall works the back with laser focus. Great use of the sack of shit. Bret uses a back drop over the top and suicide dive to turn the tide. Bret has a top five suicide dive! Five moves of Doom. There is a little struggle with Hall shoving Bret off on the ten count punches, tip of the cap. Sharpshooter attempt but Razor yanks the ref into it. The finish run is a little clunky. I liked Bret’s reversal of the Super Back Suplex into his own. That should have led to the Sharpshooter finish. Bret overthought it with a backslide, an overly complicated roll up into the Sharpshooter. This was my very long way to say because Bret matches are so logical they are easy to follow and remember. That was a super easy match to recap. It feels logically good to watch them BUT textbook Bret doesn’t move me. High end Bret doesn’t. It feels sterile, mechanical and safe. I like organic, guttural and wild. Textbook Bret is in the very good camp but not great. Hall was very good in this but this was definitely a Bret match. I would have liked to see Hall try to do heat segments more like this. ***1/2

WWF World Heavyweight Champion Bret Hart vs Fatu - WWF RAW 3/1/93

Fun trivia fact here: the first WWF Championship match on RAW. I would have expected Bret Hart to hold that honor given that timeframe, but would have never guessed the challenger. Bret defends against Yoko at WrestleMania and he takes on his shoot cousin here. They were not related kayfabe as Fatu does have "Samoa" on his tights and Yokozuna was billed from Japan. I do like this booking as a tune-up match as Fatu is a smaller version of Yokozuna so it gives you a nice preview of the WrestleMania IX main event without giving away the whole farm. Unfortunately, "Elvis" is on commentary for the match and no it is NOT the Honky Tonk Man, I believe this is Rob Bartlett. It was incredibly unfunny and distracting. It was really bad. 

I have not seen Bret in a long time and it was nice to see him again. I came away with the same thoughts I always have about Bret. I really enjoy the snap of his matches. It is not even the snap of his execution of the moves, there is a snap to how he moves in the ring and how the match even flows. It is very comforting. It feels realistic. Today matches feel like they have motion smoothing on. From the opening bell to the final bell, it is this seamless perpetual motion blur that never ends. The beats of a Bret match are just good for your soul. The feather in Bret's cap is that he can have a match unto himself. I think of people like Flair, Arn, Vader, and Misawa as wrestlers who have this plug 'n play formula. By the way this is a positive, no matter what other fans tell you. It gives you a comfort zone and then the slightest deviation is an immediate Ooooooo as opposed to other wrestlers that much noisier and then therefore the signal to noise ratio is shit. My complaints about Bret are the same. His matches are too segmented and mechanical. They are just too damn neat. Clear transitions are nice but make either side consolidate that advantages. He does not pepper in enough hope spots working underneath. He is still an easy Top 50 wrestler of all time. 

I am not sure I have ever reviewed a Rikishi/Fatu match. Obviously becoming a wrestling fan in 1997, I have seen my fair share of Rikisihi, he even came to my local skating rink when I was in high school. He was better than what I expected but I thought he was going to suck. He definitely does not suck. I dont think he is any great shakes, but he was fine. 

Enjoyed the shine, Bret tries a crossbody (nothing like hurling your body like a missile at the larger opponent) but Fatu catches him. Rikishi misses an elbow and the heir to Jack Brisco works his armdrags. Good cat & mouse early from Bret. Luring Fatu into traps who would miss and then take advantage of the discombobulation. In a heelish move, Bret feigns a knee injury early and rolls up Fatu. Fatu has enough of this and smokes Bret with a thrust kick. Some nerve pinches follow. Bret crossbody (a hope spot, be fair to Bret, MartMan), gets two but he gets sent outside where Samu is waiting to punish him while Afa distracts the ref. Back from commercial, we ditch the nerve pinches for piledrivers and sidewalk slams. Thats more like it! Bret meets Fatu at the top rope for a superplex. Five moves of Doom incoming. Again, I like them. He does them really well and there is usually a shake-up in the middle of the combination. First Sharpshooter attempt does not go well as Samu decks him from behind and pins him!?!?! Even Elvis wakes up from his shitty jokes to note that aint fair. They switch back after Bret kicks out. Bret knocks Fatu into Samu. Russiam Legsweep. Samu's head gets caught in the ropes!?!?!? Dropkick to Afa! Sharpshooter! Great visual with Samu in the background with his head caught in the ropes. 

It was an enjoyable TV match. I have spent so much time either as a kid/teenager watching the Bret classics and then reviewing those classics as an adult, it is nice to just watch a random TV match by him and acknowledge yes Bret is a great wrestler. ***1/2  

WWF World Heavyweight Champion Bret Hart vs Yokozuna - WWF WrestleMania IX

Yokozuna has got some freaky deaky chemistry with Bret Hart and Undertaker. Before the Hogan stuff, this is a good match. Hogan has a nasty fucking shiner. What’s that from? He issues a challenger to the winner.

Bret really shows why he is one of the best of all time here as he really maximizes Yoko accentuating his strengths. I love that he comes out the gate strong with a drop kick. He figures the best defense is a good offense. He issuing the full court press. Yoko is just walk through that shit. He is bucking him off and bulldozing him. Bret who is one of the cleverest wrestlers ever ties Yoko up in the ropes via the ankle to get some offense in. Once the ref unties Yoko, Yoko picks up where he left off. I love a good Yoko leg drop. A couple Yoko nerve holds grind this To a halt. I liked Bret’s hope spots of bulldogs from the second rope and Yoko’s cut offs like the super kick. Bret starts stringing together moves and when Yoko pulls him down Bret rip off the turnbuckle cover. Yoko getting slammed head first into the exposed buckle and then proving the Brain wrong with the Sharpshooter was awesome. Loved the Salt Throw. 100% agree with Chad, Yoko should have followed up with a leg drop or Banzai to finish him off with Bret writhing & wriggling more post-salt.

The Hogan shit was so dumb and reeked of desperation. Fuji issues the challenge and Bret encourages Hogan to take it. I will say this is a good example of how one moment is not enough to kill a career. Yoko was completely rehabilitated by July 4th Intrepid angle. This one angle did not bury him. There very few things people cannot come back from. It is all about follow through and almost nothing has to be burial depending on what happens after. Anyways good match as pretty much all Bret/Yoko matches are. ***1/4

Hulk Hogan Bonus Match & WWF World Heavyweight Title Defense

WWF World Heavyweight Champion Hulk Hogan vs IWGP Champion The Great Muta - NJPW 5/3/93

 Non-tile. Still pretty impressive that Muta wrestled both the NWA World Champion & WWF World Champion in the same calendar year. Also impressive he wrestled Sting & Hulk Hogan within a six month window. I was pretty amped for this when Muta flipped off the crowd and misted. It seemed like he was going to go back to his violent, maniacal tendencies. I thought this was pretty entertaining. But it felt rushed and all over the place. I liked Hogan wrestling early with the juji-gatame. Muta is more about the heel chicanery eyerakes and rolling under the ring. There is a good fire fight on the outside with some strong chops through back and forth. Hogan is the one that sends Muta into the crowd. I liked Muta having the timekeeper's hammer. It was stuff like the running lariat only to have Hogan go on top with some nasty eyerakes and punches. He even gets booed. Tries to save face by yelling "Ichiban!". Then Muta is back on top with the backbreaker and Moonsault. I was really hoping for a Hulk-Up. Instead a rope swing comes into play. Then Axe Bomber. Then there is Mist that hits the chest. Legdrop for two. Axebomer wins. It is a weird match. I mean it is Hulk Hogan vs The Great Muta, it is a match you would never expect to happen. It is not bad. It just feels really thrown together. ***

WWF World Heavyweight Champion Hulk Hogan vs Yokozuna - WWF King of the Ring 1993

What an absolute blast! I did not expect this to be as awesome as this was! WOW! Terrific Hogan performance! As to be one of his most selfless ever. Hogan sells way more than anyone ever admits but he really puts Yoko over as a Mountain. Yoko looked like a million bucks. The real loser here is Lex Luger. Luger looks like shit compared to Hogan. Hogan had a match a million times better than Luger. I am a big Luger fanboy but Hogan smoked here. 
 

They lock up and Hogan can’t budge Yoko. Hogan sells way too much way too early. The hope spot-cutoffs oh my God chicken soup for the wrestling fans soul. Yoko misses a charge in the corner or misses a splash. That creates the opening. Hogan tries punches, slams and clotheslines. Nothing gets Yoko off his feet. Yoko steamrolls. Rinse lather repeat. Pro wrestling fan mental boner.

The bear hug work by Hogan makes this spot a million times better than any nerve pinch I’ve seen. Belly 2 belly! 1-2-HULK UP! BIG BOOT! NO! AGAIN! NO! HE FELLS THE MONSTER WITH THREE! I AM LEGIT MARKING OUT! DROPS THE LEG! I AM LOSING MY MIND REWRITING THIS!  LEGDROP! 1-2-KICKOUT! CAMERA FIREBALL! YOKO DROPS THE LEG! THE SNOWFLAKES DROP FROM THE SKY! WAIT THERES MORE! BANZAI~! IT IS A GODDAMN BLIZZARD!!!!

PRO WRESTLING RULES! FUCK YEAH! ****

Yokozuna WWF World Heavyweight Title Defenses

WWF World Heavyweight Champion Yokozuna vs Crush - WWF RAW 7/5/93

One thing that really surprised me about Sid when I was watching his stuff is I don’t think I had watched a Sid match from before 1996 in my life. I think starting to watch wrestling in 1997 and focusing on the classics in my reviews I am missing a lot of stuff. Yokozuna is someone outside of two Bret matches I have never really seen either. So I am interesting in getting acquainted with him.

The booking from WWF is really strong after the disaster that was WrestleMania IX get the belt off Hogan and immediately run an angle with Yoko. The Bodyslam challenge is something I think I have seen but I should go back and watch it. Now immediately a week after that we have a title match against a credible upper mid card baby face challenger. This is first time since Superstar Graham in 1977 that WWF is pushing a heel champion.

In the smattering of Crush, I have seen I am not a huge fan and he is definitely the lesser wrestler here. That being said I didn’t think Yokozuna was all that great either. It is impressive how fast he can run and that he can take some big bumps but the match was pretty damn boring until the finish. I thought he over-bumped early on the Crush shine falling out of the ring for what amounted to a love tap. Crush misses a charge. We get some throat thrusts and some nerve pinches. Crush fires up and knocks him down with a lariat. Again I would have had Yoko absorb two and bump on the third. One crazy thing about the crowd was that they sang the Star Spangled Banner a capella unprompted and busted out into USA chant. This shit was over in 1993 Manhattan, brutha. Back to the match, so Crush gets a flying clothesline goes up for a second but Fuji hits him with the Japanese flag. Yoko slams him on the floor, belly to belly and BANZAI~! For the win!

Post-match angle is better, Yoko hits three additional Banzai with eventually Savage seeing enough and saving Crush which I believe sets up the Crush heel turn and Mania match with Savage. Pretty boring match just really need to watch the finish. 

WWF World Champion Yokozuna vs Bret Hart - WWF MSG 8/13/93 Steel Cage Match 

I'm throughly impressed that these two had such a compelling match for twenty minutes. It was so simple but so elegant and really everything had such a perfect build. Bret's strategy against the behemoth was twofold: fists and speed. He needed to take advantage of every missed opportunity. Missed elbow, missed legdrop, missed splash, Bret always would make a break for it. But he always get caught. Because he couldn't do his normal offense he would just haul off and punch. Bret has one of the better punches in WWF. 

The part that really makes it for me is the kid that is super into it. When Bret is teeing off, he is right there with him "You can get him down." "CMON BRET BABBBBBYYYYYY" Loved the genuine emotion. Which leads me to the best part of the match Yoko's selling. He was giving Blackwell a run for his money in the weeble wobbles but don't fall down selling. Selling his own headbutt. Timing his missed spots and his constant cheating was great. That second rope bulldog that takes him down was molten as was the clothesline . The Garden was rocking because Yoko was rolling. Loved the false finish where Yoko is poised for the Banzai Drop in the corner near the door so Bret makes a break for it. Bret fighting fire with Fire by kicking the ropes in his balls or thumb to the eye was great. In a NUCLEAR false finish, Hitman clobbers him with the salt bucket tossed in by Lawler and the ref counts 1-2-No! MSG POPS HUGE!!! Lawler throws powder in Brets eyes as he is climbing and Yoko wins and then squashed Bret for good measure with Banzai Drop. 

Match right up my alley that is all about working in the unique attributes of Yoko and building a distinct match around that. Not a typical Bret match. Lots of drama, great timing and so much is paid off in these mini-battles. Yoko is tremendous in this. Great David vs Goliath match with amazing selling from Goliath ****

WWF World Champion Yokozuna vs Hacksaw Jim Duggan - WWF Summerslam Spectacular 8/22/93

The swan song for Hacksaw in the WWF. Hacksaw has a new baby girl and Yokozuna is going to make sure he has plenty of time to spend with her. Duggan is another wrestler that I am well-versed in his Mid-South career but after that have seen very little. This is on a Summerslam Spectacular Card which is a USA Network special to hype Summerslam a week out with Jim Ross and Gorilla on the call. Again this is excellent booking as Duggan is the perfect sacrificial lamb for Yoko heading into the All-American showdown against the Lex Express.

This is a million times better than the Crush match because Duggan is a million times more charismatic. The crowd is molten for Hacksaw! I will say for how trite this angle should be in 1993 it was over! Patriotism was alive & kickin’ in 1993! They had a title match in June at a Superstars going where Yoko BANZAI~! Duggan to hell. It was Yoko’s first defense and it seems like that’s where the body slam angle started. 

Duggan is a dick to start interrupting the Salt Ceremony. Duggan goes to hit Yoko with 2x4 but the ref stops him and Karate Chop by Yoko as he takes over. Duggan is so much more interesting fighting from underneath than Crush. We get the liberal Fuji interference, headbutts and bear hugs. Duggan is the ultimate Dadcore wrestler. Big looping cartoony punches and biting Yoko’s nose to get out of the bear hug. It is just his mannerisms he just feels so much like a Dad. Yoko drops the leg to end one Duggan rally. Yoko misses a big splash in the corner to start the big Duggan comeback. Three well-times clotheslines takes the big man off his feet! Milked to perfection so much better than Crush! 3-point stance but Fuji trips him. BANZAI~! That’s all she wrote for Hacksaw in the WWF. Good Cornette promo afterwards on the behalf of Yoko against Luger. Good Craic. Really enjoyable larger than life cartoon wrestling. A lost art. ***1/4 

WWF World Heavyweight Champion Yokozuna vs Lex Luger - WWF Summerslam 1993

Well a hidden gem this was not. Why on earth is this 18minutes? have never a WWF Lex Luger match in my life. Luger is one of my Top 100 favorites and a wrestler I think is around #75 greatest wrestler of all time but I have never seen a WWF match. I don’t like Luger with the short hair. He looks like an American Gladiator which is en vogue but I love long hair Sexy Lexy.

I watched this match yesterday but didn’t have enough time to review. The beginning is pretty good. That second heat segment is excoriating. If you cut out that, it is a good match. You cut out that and tack on a good finish, the sky’s limit.  

Early on, they want to establish that Luger is not just a dumb jock He-Man. He’s got brains. As I was watching him outsmart Yoko I was like where’s Jim Ross when you need him, to extol Luger’s 3.78 GPA at the U. A couple minutes later Vince brings up his A+ GPA. This might be my favorite weird wrestling talking point. They do some cat & mouse early. Yoko is missing moves. Luger is taking advantage with hit & run offense. Luger is also wise to Fuji’s shenanigans. What does Luger in is when he goes brawn instead of brains. He tries to body slam Yoko too early. Yoko takes advantage here. It spills to the outside. Yoko misses a chair shot. Luger comes back. It is a series of double axe handles. He winds it up and it is a flying forearm off the top for 2! Big pop for all that.

Time for an aside. I guess Luger had an injury or an accident and they put a metal plate in his forearm. So they made the Flying Burrito his finish and had him drop the Torture Rack which is kinda classic WWF. Luger did of course rack the Giant and Roadblock but I feel like Yoko should have been tougher. Giant’s weight was more evenly distributed and Roadblock is smaller than Yoko. I think Yoko’s weight was more in his ass and it would have been more challenging. Thoughts?

So next aside, back to the flying forearm so due to the metal plate Cornette’s negotiated the contract to the match that Luger had to wear a pad on the forearm. Well you know that’s going to be the finish now.  

Honestly, I felt like the flying forearm off the top was the mid-match climax. If they just did, some Yoko cheating, a Yoko near fall, miss the Banzai, Bodyslam, unprotected Flying Forearm gone home, I would argue this was a good match. They had so much energy after that moment. I liked the transition with the salt Bucket. If they did just one big Yoko nearfall and missed Banzai. What happened was a proper Yoko heat segment. It ground this match to a fucking halt. This was fucking brutally boring. The crowd was left to die on the vine and just don’t get why they didn’t needed it. It should have been done earlier in the match because it felt like the match went in reverse. Anyways after bore de force, Yoko does miss the Banzai. They don’t go right into the body slam. He needs to miss his charging back splash in the corner which is a great set up, I will admit. Bodyslam!!! Crowd is rocking. Heenan is absolutely grating screaming hiplock. I get that’s the point. He pulls off the pad and BOOM sends Yokozuna flying to the outside. He nails Fuji. He has Corny by the tie and it is Countout Victory for our American Hero.  

I think 90s internet wrestling fans influenced us to believe this was rejected like as if this finish happened in 21st Century. If this happened post-2010, this finish would’ve gotten booed out of the building. The 90s internet wrestling fans are the people would’ve led the charge in the post-2010s world. However 1993 is NOT post-2010, crowd is actually happy no matter what you read. They did pop. Now I do happen to agree with 90s internet wrestling fans that this put the choker label on Luger again (he had the same problem in 1988 & 1990) and they ended up getting cold feet and his WWF career was dead in the water. He clearly was able to resurrect his career in WCW. WWF booked themselves into a corner. They could’ve just had Yoko be a transition heel champion like everyone since Superstar BUT I think they wanted a big baby face victory at WrestleMania X in MSG over the most dominant heel champion since Superstar Graham. In a lot of ways I thought Cody was going to get Luger’d but they proved me wrong. I am interested to see how the Boston Garden reacts to Luger at Survivor Series.

This matches does no favors to either man. It is more of a layout and time issue. I still Luger is an excellent wrestler and am still understanding Yoko. This is not a good match. 

WWF World Heavyweight Champion Yokozuna vs Bret Hart - WWF Survivor Series Showdown 1993

These specials before the PPVs have some pretty good shit on them. Yoko/Bret continue to have some freaky deaky chemistry with each other. I think the MSG match I watched many years ago is still the best match, but this is my second favorite. 

Right off the bat, you know this is going to be a good one because as Yoko is getting into the ring, Bret kicks the ropes into his Samoan Family Jewels. Bret tees off and doesnt budge the mammoth Yokozuna, who eventually TRUCKS him with a lariat. Excellent David vs Goliath match here. Bret peppers in valiant hope spots and Yoko cuts him off. The first cutoff is a ballshot. I LOVE when a super heavyweight badass stoops to a low down ballshot. It makes all the more despicable. Then on the outside Yoko cracks Bret twice with two pretty good chair shots. Love a good Yoko Legdrop too. There is a nerve pinch thrown in there, but it is not horribly long. Bret uses openings created by a Yoko missed charge in the corner to finally start connecting his offense. The crowd and I go crazy when Bret finally takes Yoko off his feet a series of stiff clotheslines. I love his use of the bulldog from the second rope to take Yoko off his feet. Yoko crushes him with a great belly to belly suplex. That was wicked and surprising late match cutoff. YOKO MISSES THE BIG SPLASH! GO BRET GO! SHARPSHOOTER! Vince is calling the match saying we have a new champion; Owen Hart has sauntered down to ringside, to celebrate, he is shaking fans hands. The ref is distracted. Fuji cracks Bret with the salt bucket. I think Owen fucks up because he attacks Yoko first and nothing really happens. Then he gets the Salt Bucket and cracks Yoko to trigger the DQ and now here's the boobirds. Yokozuna wins by a surprising DQ! I was NOT expecting that finish. It plays really well into the impending Bret Hart vs Owen Hart feud, which I love. Great booking combined with great action, makes this an easy thumbs up *** 3/4

All-Americans (Lex Luger, Undertaker, Steiner Brothers) vs Foreign Fanatics (Yokozuna, Ludvig Borga, Crush, Jacques Rougeau) - WWF Survivor series 1993 

A match that always intrigued me as a kid because of the teams. Luger & Steiners have that NWA/WCW feel but then you throw in the curveball of the Undertaker. Undertaker is replacing Tatanka who was put of action by Ludvig Borga who snapped Tatanka’s undefeated streak. Besides a house show run with Luger, Borga really only had this match and the Tatanka match to show for his WWF tenure. I saw some Tony Halme vs Shinya Hashimotom from New Japan, my memory was it was alright. I am interested to see what Borga brings to the table. It is clear that going into the Rumble they want to do the switch. Flip Yoko/Luger into Yoko/Taker and Luger/Borga which is smart to separate them and then bring them back together for Mania. The logical pairing would be Steiners vs Quebecers as they are feuding over the Tag Team Titles BUT Luger took out Pierre with his Bionic Forearm leading to the Hawaiian turncoat Crush joining the foreigners in a fit of “if you can’t beat em, join em” mentality. I think this makes sense as they wanted to keep Savage and Crush a part. This was a way to interject Crush into the main event have Savage interfere and keep the heat on this feud.  

First Elimination: Jacques is the bumper of his team so not surprisingly he takes a Scotty Steiner belly to belly to start. Rick and Yoko square off. It is THREE Steinerlines to take the Big Man off his feet. Big pop. Best part of the first 15 minutes. Borga shows his boxing/MMA skills with some good punches. He is a bit clunky but he feels like someone Inoki would use. His outfit with the Finnish colors and capris is pretty bad. I like the hair cut. They should have just billed him from Germany. Finland just doesn’t inspire much passion. Rick Steiner goes up top but is caught and slammed. It was kinda botched but Borga got him over. It was sudden and anti-climatic but that’s kinda how these Survivor Series go.

Second Elimination: Like the first it starts with Scotty throwing Jacques around. Crush enters. On cue, out comes the Macho Man. Crush press slams Scotty to the floor in what must have been a sick bump. Scotty sells the leg. Crush gets distracted by Savage. Scotty drop kicks him out. Crush/Savage brawl to a count out.  Good use of Crush/Savage.

Third Elimination: Still no Luger or Taker. Jacques picks up where Crush left off. Scotty gets the hot tag. The crowd popped for Luger. Body slam and a second rope elbow which I have never seen Luger use gets the job done for Luger. Lame finish.  

Fourth Elimination: Scotty vs Borga as Borga calls Luger a chicken. The silence is deafening. Luger and Yoko have been the only ones to get reactions so far and they have only been mild. Borga would have been a huge curveball stylistically if he said around. He was so much more strike oriented than anyone else. He could have ushered in a new style. Borga eats a super Plex but nosireebob. Yoko comes in misses the elbow but nails the Leg Drop to eliminate Scotty that’s the best elimination so far.

We are down to the big four. Lackluster match so far.  

Fifth & Sixth Elimination: Did Luger forget how to wrestle? It was painful as Luger fan watch how utterly heat-less this was. He was flopping as the Ace Babyface before our eyes. It was magnified by the hot tag to the Undertaker. Holy shit Boston woke the fuck up for Taker. They were living and dying by his every move. He jacked up the energy level hundredfold. The Belly 2 Belly -> sit-up was great. The Banzai, 2nd Banzai Sit-up causing Yoko to miss was awesome. The slam into the steps SNAP BACK LOOK SLAM YOKO INTO THE STEPS WAS INSANE! Taker is a man who understands and kills the No Selling Game. Taker easily was the best wrestler in this match. I have hope now for the Taker/Yoko ‘94 series. 

Seventh Elimination: I felt so bad for Luger/Borga nobody gave a fuck about this. Borga hit some slams and suplexes. Luger hit a Powerslam and then the Bionic Forearm to win. Before the Bionic Forearm, Borga ducked low and instead of leapfrogging Luger ran by and kicked his leg over him. I think that’s a microcosm of Luger’s WWF run lame & pathetic. Who cares about these two?

I wouldn’t be surprised if the decision to switch to Bret happened on this night or within a week of this. This night which was all about Luger showed he didn’t have it. His segments didn’t have heat and Taker blew the roof off the Boston Garden. Luger really doesn’t have anyone but himself to blame. He laid an egg. Besides Taker/Yoko don’t bother. 

WWF World Heavyweight Champion Yokozuna vs Undertaker - WWF Royal Rumble 1994

I was already to come in here and be Hot Take Marty, nobody knows what you’re talking about this matches kicks major league ass but to my pleasant surprise everyone agrees. Pretty much everyone praises the actual match, it is just your mileage may vary on the angle, which is fair. I personally liked the gang beat down. I thought it put over Taker huge and the key is the Urn. It is not the numbers game; it was Yoko taking possession of the Urn, braining him with it and popping it open that drained the Undertaker of his powers. There’s an internal logic to that I dig. Now the speech at the end and resurrection were a bridge too far for me. It was classic Vince gotta make sure the crowd goes home with hope. Let this be that Thanos moment where there is no hope. Enough about that onto this killer match:

One of the first times they run a video package before the match catching you up. I enjoyed the vignettes, the Double Wide Casket was amusing. Undertaker was so over. He murdered Luger at Survivor Series and I would be surprised if Bret was more over. Taker is their Ace Face. From what I saw at Survivor Series ‘93 my interest was immediately piqued. These boys got some freaky chemistry and I am here for it. Taker bursts of acceleration make the gimmick for me. He is lumbering and then all of sudden he EXPLODES~! He gets the Undertaker gimmick in a way all other spooky wrestlers have never gotten. He knocks Yoko off his feet with some wicked clotheslines. Classic early Yoko bump, back somersaulting to the floor. They repeat the Survivor Series 93 spot that made me a fan of theirs for life where Taker no sells the slam into the steps and slams Yoko instead. Takers wails on him with a chair but takes it a bit easier on the head, smart. Yoko salt to eyes and CRACKS him in the head with a chair so much for taking it easy. Taker is selling pretty well but will not go easily into the night. Belly 2 Belly. ZOMBIE SIT UP! The choke slam sucks but what you gonna due it’s Yoko. The DDT however does NOT! That was ELECTRIC! Taker is about to win when Fuji’s other charge, Crush interferes then it is Great Kabuki and Tenryu of all people which pops me huge. I cover the ending above.

Call me crazy but I loved this from bell to bell which gets me out of saying I loved the speech and resurrection. They left a shit ton for the rematch. No Legdrop, No Banzai, No Tombstone. I am so psyched for Survivor Series 1994! ****

WWF World Heavyweight Champion Yokozuna vs Randy Savage - WWF RAW 2/28/94

Surprised this didn’t make the 1994 yearbook, a World Title Defense on RAW, Yoko’s penultimate last defense, Savage’s last WWF Title Shot, and it is a pretty killer match to boot.

Bret vs Yoko from MSG 93 is still the best Yoko match I have seen, but this is a definite second place match. I think Cagematch has this as the #1 Yoko singles match and I don’t blame them.

We are a couple weeks out from WrestleMania X and winner defends against Both Luger and Bret at Mania. Savage jumpstarts the match before the bell attacking before Yoko disrobes. Savage EATS a hard elbow but moves on the elbow drop. Go Macho Go! Quick near fall but the ref was distracted by Fuji. Savage takes his eye off the prize and gets a karate thrust to the throat. Great Savage battling from underneath peppering in shots and making Yoko resort to cheating. Yoko misses the big splash. High Knee sends Yoko crashing to the floor. Top Rope Double Axehandle to the floor. Cornette’s out, Savage can not get the humongous Yoko back in the ring. Corny distracts. Yoko gets another Karate Thrust. Savage mounts an aerial comeback with a top rope double axe handle in the ring and a top rope crossbody. This shit is cooking! Yoko comes back now with a big splash in the corner. Savage slumps down in such a way that it has Vince thinking Banzai Drop but Yoko pulls him to the middle. He goes for the Legdrop but misses! Both men are out! Fuji gives Yoko the salt bucket but Savage gets control of it and bashes the Champion in the head! Pin em! They take a standing 8 count! 1-2-NO! TOP ROPE FLYING ELBOW DROP CONNECTS! THE MACHO MAN IS GOING TO WRESTLEMANIA! REWRITE THE HISTORY BOOKS FOLKS! 1-2-CRUSH INTERFERES AND TRIGGERS THE DQ!

Interestingly, the crowd chants for Luger to make the save and when Bret does there is not much of a pop. When Luger makes the ultimate save there is also not much of a pop. Just a wicked fun TV title defense played into both wrestlers strengths. Savage is so scrappy and Yoko was a beast. The home stretch was one of the best I have seen on these early RAWs. *** 3/4

WWF World Heavyweight Champion Yokozuna vs Lex Luger - WWF WrestleMania X

Another suckfest between these two. Yokozuna has acquitted himself in matches with Undertaker, Bret Hart and Randy Savage of being capable of having a good to great match. I know Lex Luger has a vast array of great matches throughout his NWA and WCW runs. Yet these two just bring out the worst in each other. Not one, not two, not three, BUT FOUR nerve pinches, are you fucking kidding me?

Funnily enough, I actually thought the shine and comeback were excellent. Luger starts off red hot, Yoko trucks him, but misses the elbow drop/ Luger slugs him once and Yoko crashes to the floor. Loved the block on the stairs and sending Yoko into it twice. The top rope crossbody was a great nearfall. The missed bodyslam with Yoko crashing all his weight down on him was a great transition to heat, but MY GOD that heat segment was atrocious. Again once Luger took back over with the exposed turnbuckle, clotheslines, the BIG BODYSLAM and Bionic Forearm that was all great. That heat segment was terrible. 

As for the finish and the booking, this has to go down as some of the worst Vince booking of all time. Luger has Yoko out stone cold and it was established during Summerslam that if Luger could hit Bionic Forearm and Yokozuna stayed in the ring he would be champion. Luger takes out all the managers, but Mr. Perfect who is the Special Guest Ref intentionally ignores Luger's cover. Luger says what gives and shoves him. This triggers the DQ. I guess this has something to do with their WrestleMania IX match and they do have a pretty good argument in the back immediately following the match. The problem is there no follow-up. Mr. Perfect never wrestles in 1994 and doesnt wrestle again until he goes to WCW in 1997. The more I think about it, there was no way Luger or Bret would have looked good in this situation. Someone was going to look like a chump and a choke. It was whoever was going to have mid-match title match. Bret looks like a fucking hero on this night. He has the 5 star classic, one of the best WWF matches of all time to open the show against his brother and he defeats the dominant, super heavyweight champion to close the show. You dont get a much better night than that. You just cant have Luger win here because while the pop would be good against Yoko. The babyface vs babyface for Luger vs Bret would have been weird for the finale. If Bret wins, some of the Luger fans might get pissed. If you turn Luger heel in the main event then everything you invested in Yoko was for nothing. If Luger wins, you already saw him beat Yoko, who cares about Bret. It was lose-lose all the way around. They should have just had Corny/Fuji stack the deck against Bret by making him face Owen first and then Yoko to close. Found some other heel to wrestle Luger. This booking was pure character assassination of Lex Luger. I dont think anyone could have recovered from the Summerslam 1993 and WrestleMania X. 

Ignoring the booking, this is still a terrible match. 

WWF World Heavyweight Champion Yokozuna vs Bret Hart - WWF WrestleMania X 

Eevryone talks about the post-match celebration but I thought this was a damn solid match. I watched this in between a Sepultura and Testament set a couple weeks back and I was meaning to write a review, but I was kinda burnt out on writing. I really thought up until the finish this was damn good pro wrestling. Yokozuna was a great athletic, monster heel. He was constantly cheating. I don't think there was an underhanded tactic he didn't try. He also had some great big man offense. Bret as selling from the match against Owen and was tremendous in this match as a sympathetic babyface. The selling and the hope spots were great. The dropkick was nice. I LOVED, LOVED the headbutt and they both sell it. Hell, Yoko was really great at selling throughout the match. Bret, ever the thinker, comes up with unique ways to hit his offense and I appreciated that a lot. I think what hurts this the most is the lame finish on the missed Banzai Drop. I mean Yoko really never main evented again. Just let Bret put him in the Sharpshooter and really climax this bad boy. I thought this was a very entertaining WrestleMania Main event and is way too unheralded. ***1/2

Bret Hart 1994 WWF World Heavyweight Title Defenses

WWF World Champion Bret Hart vs Diesel -WWF King of the Ring 1994

Trying to clean up some blind spots in the WWF. All Bret/Diesel matches have the same core backbone but they get better with more fleshing out and Diesel getting better. This seems like the more natural dynamic with Diesel as heel but Bret is so good at face vs face matches that this match is the least of the three.

The hook of the match was who would be in Brets corner to counteract Shawn Michaels. HBK is such a great douche in prematch promo. 

I love how Bret has to create openings to get his shine going with Diesel missing big boots and a knee in the corner. His shine is more heel in peril working the leg but it is over and the figure-4 is highlight. The posting gets a pop but Shawn decks him with a surprisingly hard clothesline. The Shawn/Anvil chase is a real highlight very entertaining. I like that it takes quite a bit for Diesel to earn his heat segment. Elongated transitions are the best. The missed pescado and he crashed and burn puts Diesel in drivers seat. Diesel's heat segment goes too long in my opinion. Bret does his best to throw himself into his bumps. 

Shawn tries to help by removing the turnbuckle pad but he who sets up the spot takes it trumps him. Bret sends him into exposed steel and FIVE MOVES OF DOOM~! Bret clobbers Shawn on apron and Shawn takes a great bump. Bret eats a huge big boot, great spot and wrinkle. Diesel is slow to capitalize and Bret trips him up into a unique Sharpshooter but Nash is too close to the ropes. At some point, I forget when, Diesel does a great job stumbling around for Bret punches. 

Finish is HBK clobbers Bret with title but ref is distracted. Diesel hits the Jackknife. Anvil interferes to trigger DQ. Finish was weak. The explanation I assume is that Anvil wants the title on Bret for Owen. Just a very good match nothing extraordinary. ***1/2

WWF World Heavyweight Champion Bret Hart vs 1-2-3 Kid - WWF RAW 7/11/94 

Bret was simultaneously the best babyface and heel in the WWF between 93-97. Nobody worked a better heat segment on top than Bret. His offense is pristine as it is brutal. Those European uppercuts were just rocking the hell out of Kid. He was blasting him the whole match his kicks were great. I don't know if Bret, who is an excellent offensive wrestler, ever looked better on offense than here. He absolutely looked unstoppable. The Bulldog at the end was ferocious. Kid was selling like a million bucks and really timing those hope spots well. I loved how Bret was squashing those flash pinfall attempts. From the outset, I just didn't think Kid had a good strategy. You want to grind with Bret? I just don't think that's wise. Bret's facial reactions to this were great. The way he was like who does he think he is with those takedowns. Give Kid credit he was staying with Bret and Bret was having a hard time escaping the holds. Obviously I am talking kayfabe here, but I just don't see this as a winning strategy against Bret. Flash pins and kicking Bret's head off were way better chances to win this match. You see Bret bury the knee deep into the abdomen. I love the kneelift. It was a great one. See how Bret regroups, causally stomps the abdomen. He has totally taken the wind out of the Kid's sails. Great selling by Kid. This is that heat segment I was talking about. The restart with Bret saying Kid's foot was on the ropes was a great way to keep Bret babyface. The Kid's comeback was great because it all started with kicks to the head. Spinwheel kick, jumping back kick and dropkick all to the head. He really knocked Bret for a loop. The legdrop off the top was a great nearfall. The crash and burn off the somersault splash was great. You knew these high risk moves would backfire and they did. The superplex reversal by Kid into a pinfall was a great last gasp even though I have seen this match like three times before, my eyes popped for that. Kid goes hard into the turnbuckles ass first on a dropkick. GREAT BUMP! Great piece of psychology. AWESOME BULLDOG BY BRET! The press slam off the top was stupid but with this being such a NWA World Title match it was cute to see Bret do the Flair spot. Bret catches Kid off the top with the Sharpshooter. Not the best way to get to the finish, but a great finish nonetheless. 

Incredible match. Bret is ruthless and kicks so much ass. Kid is all heart, all guts. Selling and just throwing his body out in reckless abandon. Bret withstands that one big push from the Kid and lets the Kid make the mistake after mistake at the end. Eventually is able to wrap up the victory, but not without some close calls. Bret Hart has looked amazing in these 90s matches. ****1/4

WWF World Heavyweight Champion Bret Hart vs Bob Backlund - WWF Superstars 7/30/94 

I often extol Bret's talents in these face vs face matches and I think this just one of many examples you can use as evidence for his incredible capability in this very challenging environments. I want to focus on Bob Backlund in this one. To really appreciate this match, I think you need immerse yourself in the matches of Bob Backlund's title reign. Bob Backlund lives by the mantra "anything you can do, I can do better" and his unmatched tenacity. We see that on display here with Backlund going for the early, unique rollups. You can see Bret selling these through his frustration with the ref. Bret knows this aint no walk in the park. But you also see how Backlund has a lost step. That Bret is able to control this match with holds. Backlund still has his freaky strength look at that amazing bridge on the half nelson/hammerlock pinning combination. He still has tenacity look at those multiple waistlock takedowns to the outside. How about how Bret will hit a strike and Backlund will come back with that same strike that is classic Backlund. But still he cant maintain control he was once able to that's what I mean when he has lost a step. He is Bob Backlund but he is older and Bret can overwhelm him. He can fight out of the Sharpshooter all he wants but Bret will drop that elbow on him. Some really great sequences here with backslides and bridge outs. Just some really great classic, technical wrestling that is all about competition. Backlund besides the cradles does not have as much in his offensive arsenal in terms of stringing things along and I think that was a great way to show his age. Bret takes a nasty spill to the floor when Bob gets up early on a dropdown. I LOVE THAT! That's just a perfect little thing that could happen in a wrestling match. Backlund tries to take advantage but cant really capitalize and then Bret is able to get a small package after about 6 unique cradles from Backlund, Bob succumbs to a small package. Beautiful symmetry. This is just a great classic championship match that Bret does a great job treating it like an NWA Champion would and Backlund makes for such a unique opponent. The post-match turn with Bret offering a handshake of respect and Bob snapping and attacking him with the Crossface Chickenwing is one of the best WWF angles of all time. It is only further enhanced by how they played off the past history with Backlund being screwed out of the championship in 83 with the towel being thrown in on his behalf and the Arnie Skaaland segment they do later is great. Taken all together it is just terrific pro wrestling. ****1/4

WWF World Heavyweight Champion Bret Hart vs Owen Hart - WWF Summerslam 1994

 Remember thinking this was awful. Here we go... 

First Half: Bret has strep. The first five minutes are pretty damn good. Owen jumps Bret. They have a great, heated slugfest. This is the natural progression from their technical classic at Mania. Let the fists fly! I really thought it was good as were the lunges for the cage door. I think building the match around actually winning which means to escape is fine and is quite logical. The problem was they were selling 5 minutes into the match like the match only had 5 minutes left. They had a pretty good slugfest so I get the extreme selling. The problem is they had TWENTY-SEVEN minutes left! So their selling was excessive was killing the momentum. Also Owen really didn't do anything all that heelish. Because they were constantly escaping, that meant someone had to stop the other from escaping which fucked up their selling. No one could build any sort of momentum because they were constantly escape->cutoff->other tries to escape. So there was no heat segment. I absolutely loathe when someone's entire body is out of the cage and they pull them back in by the hair. It looks so lame because the other had to clearly help get his legs over the cage in a safe way. I hope the second half is better, but don't see how it can be. 

Second Half: Funny enough, the beginning of the second half was better. It helped that Owen went into cage three times. I thought they built to the escapes better with some more moves in between. Owen's piledriver was great. I also like how Owen cutoff Bret but crotched himself. Bret burst of energy with rapid fire punches was great. But God did they grind this back to a halt with like ten minutes left. Just aimless escape attempts. Nothing felt memorable. Until the superplex from the top of the cage that was badass, but that ruined by another blocked escape. What was the point of dueling Sharpshooters if the finish was just them both hanging over the edge of the cage and then Owen getting his foot trapped. 

There was no hook. Really only the superplex was memorable but Hogan/Bossman has the market cornered on that. No heat segment. No way to build drama. Logical, yes. Dramatic, no. Boring and not worth the time. Way, way too long.

WWF World Heavyweight Champion Bret Hart vs Owen Hart - WWF Action Zone 10/23/94

Surprised this did not make the Yearbook as it made the original WWE Bret Hart DVD set, it is a WWF Title Defense, it is sort of the swan song of the Bret/Owen (they have a match on RAW in early 95 but theres no title) and it is also the premiere episode of Action Zone. 

The Kliq can rest easy, they still have the best Action Zone match in history, but this is pretty good. I remember thinking the WrestleMania X match was a lot better, but still enjoying this one and when I would get tired of WrestleMania X, I would spin this one. I do think this a million times better than their borefest at Summerslam. It is pretty much the condensed version of WrestleMania X with the in-laws (Anvil & Bulldog) thrown in for effect. 

Take routine restholds, but make them fun is the mantra of Owen. In the hands of a lesser man, the chinlock/headlock sequence during the initial heat could have ground the match to the halt, but he threw in so much hair pulling and ref misdirection. He always had me entertaining. Classic Owen heeling early too, celebrating ridiculous stuff like the lockup. Bret seemed to be wrestling extra dry in my opinion. He was just mechanical, clinical, cold. Nailing the arm drags, working the arm, going for interesting covers early. The passion was not there. Owen was bringing life to the match. Anvil trips Bret which leads to the holds I talked about at the beginning of the paragraph. This also triggers Bulldog to come out. Bret starts to mount a comeback with some stiff European Uppercuts. This shows a similar progression as the WrestleMania X match. Bret was working scientifically early and just trying to win the match by pinfall, but he had enough of Owen's antics started to really lay it in. Owen got a nice belly to belly and missile dropkick. This puts Bret in position to be attacked by Anvil while Owen distracted the ref. Anvil wrapped Bret's knee around the post. Owen is Bret's younger brother and is just a savage on the leg. He is a great grinder. Bret really thrives in the grind, breaking someone down. I thought Owen varied the holds and the strikes wonderfully. We cut to break as Bret is reversing a Figure-4. It is off to finish stretch. Bret hits his standard stuff, which always looks good. When he goes for the Sharpshooter, Owen pokes him in the eye and gets a spinwheel kick. Bret fights back and tries to superplex Owen, but Anvil holds Owen's foot and Bret goes flying, crashing hard to the match. As the ref is checking on Bret, the Bulldog shoves Owen off the top rope to crotch himself. 1-2-3! 

It was never going to be WrestleMania X and it was never supposed to be. Like I said it was the condensed version but also with a sudden ending. The wrinkle of Anvil and Bulldog helped change the dynamic from Mania X. Set up a RAW match between the two teams that I have not seen, but am interested in. It is Bret vs Owen, the work is very solid, but it is hard to call this more than very good especially with the finish. *** 3/4

WWF World Champion Bret Hart vs Bob Backlund - WWF Survivor Series 1994 Submission Match 

Pretty incredible booking here. Bob Backlund snapped after a match challenging Bret Hart for the title he never lost. He began claiming he was still the rightful WWF Champion and only lost because his manager, Arnold Skaaland threw in the towel within his consent in his 12/83 title defense against Iron Sheik. So he goes on a rampage of applying the Crossface Chickenwing n everyone including Skaaland. To play off this history, Backlund wants a submission match where the corner man has to throw in the towel. He has the perfect corner man, Owen Hart. Owen hates his brother, Bret and has no love for Backlund. So Backlund can rest assured there is no way Owen will throw in the towel. Brilliant! Bret has Davey Boy, who Bret can trust as his brother in-law. 

First half: Bob tries to jump Bret, but Bret fires off the heavy artillery, punches and headbutts. He just unloads on Backlund. Backlund looks like a crazed man has no idea what he wants to do. Bret is controlling with a tight headlock. Backlund goes for the Crossface Chickenwing early and often as that seems to be his only strategy. Loved Bret's urgency to get out of that hold very quickly before its applied especially liked the belly to belly counter. Bret immediately going for the Sharpshooter is a nice touch as is Backlund quick escape. Loved how Bret immediately lunged after him and clamped on a front chancery. The urgency in this match has been great. Bret misses an elbow and Backlund starts to yank on the arm HARD. Backlund finally building some momentum with some really strong arm work. I like how they put over that pinfalls don't matter here. Backlund is tenacious with his wrist control. Classic Bob. Bret is able to get free long enough to hit an inverted atomic drop. He wrestles with Backlund's legs cant get the Sharpshooer but gets the Figure-4. Backlund is hollering, but Owen does not give a fuck. Bret will have to snap Backlund's leg. Backlund does reverse and now Bret is writhing in pain as Owen eggs on Davey Boy to throw it in. Bret reverses and Backlund makes the ropes. Great way to establish Owen's apathy for Backlund's well-being and how he is going to be a dick at ringside whenever Bret is in trouble. Really strong match thus far as we head into the second half with Bret working over the leg of Backlund even trying for a Sharpshooter, but Backlund wriggles free. 

Second half: Bret tries to go upstairs with Backlund and pays for it. Backlund hits one of his sweet piledrivers. Backlund keeps going for the Crossface Chickenwing, but Bret goes for the ropes. Backlund gets a sleeper which his version of the figure-4 spot as it is his nearfall before the finish, an alternate to the crossface chickenwing like the figure-4 was the alternate to Sharpshooter. Bret falls forcing Backlund's head into turnbuckle. Backdrops out of piledriver. Bret hits an amazing piledriver and then runs through the Five Moves of Doom in glorious fashion. He gets the Sharpshooter! Owen is in the ring and Davey Boy gives chase. Owen clubs Bret from behind. Davey Boy tries to tackle Owen but hits his head hard on the steel steps. He is knocked out for the next ten minutes. Bob Backlund locks in the Crossface Chickenwing for the next ten minutes which must have been horrible for Bret, who mentions in his book that hold is legitimately painful. If you look at it there is no way to apply without causing pain it just contorts the shoulder and neck in a painful way. Thus begin some of the greatest theatrics that would ever occur in the WWF as Owen goes into full sympathy mode. He feels bad for Davey Boy and then Bret. He never meant for it to go this far, Mom. We are a family, mom. It is hilarious how Helen & Stu stepover Davey Boy like he is a puddle of water. Stu grabs the towel out of Helen's hand and wont throw it in. The crowd is right with them and is chanting Lets Go Bret to the bitter end. Helen yanks the towel out of her husband's hands to throw it into to save her baby boy. Owen is elated and races back to the dressing room. Backlund is just staring at his hands and is just a little too good at acting like a loon if you know what I mean. Bret is helped to the back by his parents heart broken at what transpired. I thought Vince and Gorilla, yes Gorilla, did a great job getting this angle over. 

There are some clunky moments in this, but I thought they did a great job telling the basic story of the Sharpshooter vs Crossface Chickenwing. Lots of good attempts and escapes. Arm work and leg work were logical and well done. Figure-4 and sleeper were good nearfalls. Bret's finish stretch was hot! Sharpshooter and Owen blasting him was great. The Owen theatrics were top notch and really drives this into must watch territory. Really amazing piece of pro wrestling theatre that everyone should watch. ****1/4