WWF Raw 3/10/1994

British Bulldog vs Jim Neidhart

This was perfectly ok, while at the same time maybe not being as good as you’d hope for with two family members, one of whom is in his comeback match. Liked the opening battle of the shoulderblocks, with Bulldog winning with a leaping version, and DBS showed nice agility in hitting a standing dropkick out of a test-of-strength. Neidhart goes to “a semblance of a chinlock”, as described by Vince. Bulldog hurts his leg crashing to the floor after Owen Hart pulls down the ropes, which lures out Bret from the back, and Neidhart does a bit of token work on it. Loved Neidhart’s rope-assisted choke, standing on Bulldog’s throat and really working the rope to add emphasis. Neidhart misses a splash and Bulldog hits the delayed suplex, albeit with a minimal delay due to the leg. Owen interferes after Bulldog was going for a sunset flip, and this draws the DQ. Feels like an odd time for Owen to come in, especially after quite a lengthy match.

Doink vs Barry Horowitz

Horowitz looks really good in this match, substantially better than Doink. Doink barely gets enough elevation on a leapfrog and almost loses Horowitz on a backslide, while Barry gets a nice bridging pin and fully commits to a missed corner charge. Doink gets a powerslam and the Whoopie Cushion to win.

Bull Nakano & Luna Vachon vs Alundra Blayze & Heidi Lee Morgan

Odd match this, with Morgan taking 90% of the match, and totally dominating Nakano every time Bull is in. Morgan gets a fun, through-the-legs bridging pin on Vachon, before Luna takes over. However, as soon as Bull gets in, Morgan starts no selling shoulderblocks and getting a victory roll before Luna comes in to take control again. Really odd way to book the monster heel. You can almost hear Vince’s frustration as he complains about Morgan needing to get the champ in there. He also criticises Heidi’s decision to try a missed splash rather than make the tag, before Alundra gets in. Nakano blocks a double suplex and takes both Morgan and Blayze over instead. However, Luna accidentally hits a missile dropkick on her, and Blayze hits the German on Luna to win. Baffling booking of Nakano.

Bob Backlund vs Gary Scott

Fun little squash, with Bob letting Scott look quite competitive on the mat and working a nice sequence with him, before locking in the chicken wing for the win after a missed clothesline. Good way to end the show.

WWF Monday Night Raw 11/07/1994

Bret Hart vs 1-2-3 Kid

This is a really great match, with Bret putting in a real world champion’s performance. Bret subtly puts over Kid right from the start, bumping to the mat for an arm-wringer after one of his own doesn’t down the Kid. Bret is also the first to hit a few nasty blows, hitting a short back elbow to kick the match into the next gear. He also hits a few brutal looking European uppercuts in the corner, almost telling Kid that he may have won the early mat stages, but he needs to do more than that to win the title. I appreciated Jim Ross on commentary continually putting over that even Bret’s cheaper looking shots are “legal manoeuvres” as this is still a face vs face match. Bret reverses a crucifix to a big Samoan Drop for three, but Kid’s foot is on the rope and Bret gets it restarted. Bret is in firm control after the restart, planting Kid with a DDT and a full-on bulldog. Kid starts getting more success with high risk moves, hitting a lovely corner dropkick and a moonsault press for two. Kid only glances Bret with a cannonball from the apron, so it’s no surprise Bret is first into the ring. Kid misses a cannonball into the ring and an attempt at a missile dropkick is caught into a Sharpshooter for the win. Really great performance by both here, Bret put in a real “ace” performance.

Crush vs Matt Hardy

Quick little squash. Hardy evades some early blows by flipping out of the way, but eats a huge superkick. A backbreaker gives Crush the win.

Razor Ramon vs Barry Horowitz

Really fun match. The opening armwork was nice, Ramon forcing the bicep over his knee whilst Horowitz actually looked like he was trying to find openings to escape. The fallaway slam from Ramon looks huge and Razor then gestures for the Edge…only to hook Horowitz in a small package for the win. Have to love Ramon’s shrug to the camera after fooling the audience.

IRS vs Ray Hudson

IRS squashes are the worst, but thankfully this was the least worst one I’ve seen so far. IRS actually starts with some aggression, hitting a decent corner elbow and a legdrop. Of course, things slow inevitably down as Irwin hooks an abdominal stretch and an interminable leglock, but it started well. STF gets the win.

WWF Raw 23/05/1994

Owen Hart vs Doink the Clown

This is a King of the Ring qualifying match. Really great Owen performance here. He’s suitably aggressive at the start, jumping Doink at the bell, hitting big upper cuts, and cheating with chokes and eyepokes. Doink is pretty generic by comparison, and relies on Dink outside the ring to give his performance some colour. Dink is a pretty irritating little twat, it has to be said. Honestly, the clowns are so unlikable, it makes it hard to feel bad for Doink when Owen goes after his leg, wrapping it around the ringpost. Owen also hits a perfect belly-to-belly suplex. Doink makes a brief comeback that gets stopped by Jeff Jarrett kidnapping Dink. This distraction lets Owen kip up and roll up Doink to win. Love that Owen kipped up to do the roll up, so wonderfully cocky, and I love that Jarrett let Dink go as soon as Doink lost – can’t blame him for not wanting to be stuck with the shitty little clown.

Duke Droese vs Barry Horowitz

I’m sure this wasn’t the aim of this bout, but I left it thinking Horowitz had a great performance. He bumps around to make Droese look more powerful than he probably was, and his control section on the arm was really fun. Dug him wrapping the arm around the ropes, then giving the ropes a kick. For his part, Droese was fine, nice power moves, but he’d look a touch lost between moves. His spinebuster looked good, and his finishes it with an elbow that looked far worse than the Trash Compacter that he’d later use.

IRS vs Gary Sabaugh

This is really dull. Sabaugh is the former Italian Stallion, but this is a one-sided squash for IRS, and he’s a terrible squash worker. His offence is really basic, and whilst there’s been many a good in-ring story told with not many moves, a squash needs something more interesting to carry the bout along. Not IRS hitting short back elbows, then going to the mat for extended hammerlocks and chinlocks. A brief Sabaugh comeback ends with a stungun, and IRS hits a basic clothesline to win. Waste of time.

Nikolai Volkoff vs Matt Hardy

I liked far more of this than I should have. Volkoff is old and pudgy, and he unleashes some of the weakest looking strikes in this match, but he also works a fun match section to start the bout, he avoids a springboard crossbody by casually walking out of the way, he hits  nice butterfly suplex and wins with a nice Boston crab. I dug this. 

WWF Raw 11/4/1994

Diesel vs Virgil

I had so few expectations for this match, so I was pretty pleased to see Diesel properly go at Virgil with some aggression at the start of the match. Also enjoyed Virgil’s armwork when he took control. Against Jeff Jarrett a few weeks earlier, he’d been content to just hold Jarrett by the wrist, but here he did some fun little bits, twisting it over the ropes and hitting a top rope ax handle to the shoulder. Of course, from there it all goes to shit, as Diesel slows things down, locking in THREE separate bear hugs. Virgil makes a brief spirited comeback but it gets ended by a big boot and a Jackknife for the win.

Thurman “Sparky” Plugg vs Barry Horowitz

Fairly pointless match, highlighted by the commentary team ignoring it for its entire runtime in favour of a chat with Mr Perfect. This was fairly enjoyable, though it’s odd that Horowitz had the best looking move of the match with a nice inverted DDT. The future Bob Holly was fairly pedestrian here, before winning with a top rope kneedrop.

The Quebecers vs Men On A Mission

This match was the result of an audience phone in, where the viewers could pick MoM, the Bushwhackers or the Smoking Gunns for this title match. They could have voted better, but then they could also have voted worse. This was a bit of a mess, to be honest, not aided by some overly fussy refereeing by Earl Hebner. It really hurt the match from as his insistence on clearing everyone from the ring hindered the drama on the nearfalls. I did enjoy some of this, largely due to the Quebecers. Loved Jacques’ intelligence as he eyepoked big Mabel and kept kicking at his legs to try and knock down the redwood, and there were some nice Quebecer double teams – a double stungun on Mo and a nice rocket launcher shoulder block that sent Pierre hurtling at Mabel from the top rope. Mabel had some fun fat guy offence, but Mo stinks as usual and the aforementioned Hebner refereeing prevent this from being a good bout. The Quebecers picked up the win with the assisted cannonball.

WWF Raw 07/02/1994

The Smoking Gunns vs Barry Horowitz & Reno Riggins

Decent little squash to start the night. Riggins and Horowitz are upper-tier jobbers, so they get a little offence to start, hammering Billy in their corner. I loved the Bart Gunn top rope crossbody off the tag which took out both opponents. The Gunns control with a few nice double-teams, nothing mindblowing, but good basic teamwork. They finish with Billy Gunn hitting a top rope elbow on Riggins as Bart held him in an Argentine backbreaker.

Owen Hart vs John Paul

Great work by Owen in this match, his first on Raw since the heel turn. He highlights his new found aggressiveness with some sharp back elbows and uppercuts, which distance him from his old persona. After a lovely backbreaker, he locks in the Sharpshooter for the win.

 

IRS vs Marty Jannetty

Quick tempo to start, as Marty sends IRS from the ring after getting attacked from behind. Jannetty takes a huge bump on the floor after getting sent into the ringpost, but seconds later hits a lazy sunset flip into the ring, with the post bump seemingly having no effect. The Quebeccers come out as we go to break, continuing the Jannetty/Johnny Polo beef, but have been sent to the back by the time we return. IRS makes sure to work in a lengthy abdominal stretch and that spot when he jumps off the top rope onto his opponent’s outstretched foot to make sure I don’t enjoy myself. Marty makes his comeback as a whole load of people come out to the ringside, as Polo is followed by Razor Ramon, who is followed in turn by a returning Quebeccers. This leads to a ref distraction where Polo pushes Marty as he leaps into the ring, and IRS wins. Jannetty and Razor clean house to lead to a tag title match in two weeks time

Thurman “Sparky” Plug vs Duane Gill

Poor old Bob Holly. He’s in an awkward position where he’s kinda portrayed as a high flyer, but he doesn’t do that many high flying moves, so he hits a lot of dropkicks and quick armdrags to show he has speed. I dug the spot where Gill tried to outsmart Plugg by springboarding himself out of the ring, only to meet a punch to the face on the ring apron. Plugg hits a nice powerslam and finishes with a top rope kneedrop (“he calls that the Overhead Cam”, a wretched finisher name)

Crush vs James Thornberg

Surprisingly fun. I loved it early when Thornberg hit two no-sold clotheslines, and Crush grabbed the third and yanked him to the mat for a Fujiwara armbar. Crush’s offence is ok, with a few nice kick combo’s thrown in, and he hits a legdrop for the win.