WWF Raw 02/05/1994

Only 3 matches on this episode of Raw, but the sole competitive match is a lot of fun.

The Quebecers vs The Headshrinkers

They’d been hyping this tag title match for the past few weeks, so this was quite the hot little opening main event (by which I’m referring to the odd Raw phenomenon of this time period of putting the big matches on first and ending with the jobber squashes). Vince, in trying to put over the managerial skills of Captain Lou, decides to name drop the Yukon Lumberjacks to the 94 Raw audience. The Quebecers are so good at making their opponents looks great, stooging about magnificently, missing moves and accidentally hitting each other in the opening moments. They try to get counted out, but the referee threatens to strips them of the belts unless they return. Finally, a knee to Fatu’s back and a big Pierre clotheslines (with 360 spin selljob) give them the advantage. With the advantage, the Quebecers knock out all their cool double teams, as Jacques backdrops Pierre onto Fatu and they hit a joint clothesline/side Russian leg sweep. Annoyingly we cut back from commercials to see Fatu avoid a charge and make the hot tag, but shortly Samu gets his head stuck in the top two ropes to again give the Quebecers the control. This is only a short heat section, as Samu avoids the top rope cannonball, then the Quebecers fall out over an accidental punch to the face of Pierre. This allows Fatu to hit a top rope splash and pin Jacques for the titles. Big crowdpleasing match, really enjoyed this.

Tatanka vs Derek Domino

Frustratingly, this started really well as the commentary put over a new, more aggressive Tatanka, who was beating away at Domino. He even lowered Domino’s singlet in order to hit his chops more painfully. Sadly, this tempo doesn’t last long, and Tatanka is soon holding onto an armbar to kill time. Samoan Drop gets the win in a pedestrian squash.

Yokozuna vs Mike Davis & Scott Taylor

Fun match as Yoko hits a nice double clothesline, massive legdrop and a back suplex, before stacking the future Scotty II Hotty on his partner and hitting a nasty looking double-Bansai Drop. Fun stuff.

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 20/03/1994

The Bushwhackers vs the Quebecers

Oh, this was very much a poor match. This is non-title, the Quebecers still the champions following Wrestlemania X, and for a lot of the match you feel like they’ll put the Bushwhackers over, as they control the majority of the bout. There’s one bit where the tag champs have to stand around like idiots for 30 seconds as the Bushwhackers dance around the ring, then attack them. It feels like the heel/face divide is all wrong, with Jacques having to power out of a chinlock in order to make a “hot tag” to Pierre. Except that Pierre then also gets dominated. The Bushwhackers are an aged comedy tag team and they totally blitz the tag champs. FINALLY, when we get back from the break the Quebecers have control. We get a few nice Quebecer double teams, where Jacques uses Pierre as a weapon, and the champs work over Luke. The hot tag gets made and Pierre has to be saved by Jacques in order to keep from being pinned by a battering ram. It takes a Johnny Polo distraction and a knee to the back from Pierre to give the Quebecers the win. Ridiculous.

Tatanka vs Chris Hamrick

Pretty fun squash. When I saw Hamrick was the jobber, I wondered to myself if he’d take the Hamrick Bump, and I wasn’t disappointed. It comes in the first few minutes, and Vince near loses his mind over it. It even gets a mid-match replay. That aside, Tatanka’s offence looks really good here, more in line with grouchy stiff Tatanka from 2006. Big clotheslines, nasty stiff chops and a bit of added emphasis on all his moves. The End of the Trail gives Tatanka the win.

Diesel vs Ken Lucia

JIP after we watch Diesel’s entrance. Basic, nothing squash with Diesel slowly beating up Lucia. Powerbomb gets 3.

                                         

Jeff Jarrett vs Koko B Ware

Nice to see Koko still appearing in 94. Unlike the Bushwhackers earlier, Koko can still go and this is a good little bout. Jarrett’s character work is terrific, so cocky at the start just by virtue of hip-tossing Ware twice. Then, as soon as Koko takes over, Jarrett stooges about, dizzily putting over his offence. Koko misses a corner splash, and an angry Jarrett is all over him, viciously wearing him down. What’s great is how Jarrett slowly regains his arrogance as the bout continues. Ware gets a brief flurry of offence, but ducks his head to allow Jarrett to nail a DDT for the win. 

WWF Raw 21/2/1994

The Quebecers vs Razor Ramon & the 1-2-3 Kid
You may remember from the last episode of Raw that this was supposed to be Marty Jannetty teaming with Razor, but in classic Marty fashion he'd been fired at this point. There's some fun stuff in this match, and the Razor/Kid tandem are portrayed as the more dominant throughout. Loved some of the early double-teams, including Razor using the fallaway slam to hurl Kid onto Pierre. They also neutralize the Johnny Polo threat early, as his receipt for interfering at the start is taking a Razor's Edge on the floor. I loved some of Razor's work here, including very deliberately sliding to a stop with his fist out to lowblow Pierre off a leapfrog. Hilarious spot. Diesel comes out to distract Ramon and the Quebecers finally work some heat on Kid after a gnarly looking double-team flapjack. The Kid makes the Quebecers offence look terrific, especially when Pierre hits a big corner avalanche. Razor hits the Razor's Edge on Pierre following the hot tag, but Shawn Michaels comes in to cause the DQ and cost Ramon/Kid the titles. Necessary screwjob ending to a fun match. It actually works to have the Quebecers look weak going into Mania, as you buy a silly team like Men On A Mission as having a chance against them.

Bret Hart vs Tom Pritchard
Nice to finally see Bret on an old Raw, and this is a fine TV match. Loved the opening matwork, where Pritchard was allowed to look good, but Bret was clearly portrayed as being better, reversing Pritchard's armbars and working the arm with some nice shots. Pritchard is able to come back, grounding Bret with a headlock and wearing him down with a knee to the spine. There's some external stuff where Randy Savage prevents Jim Cornette interfering, which allows Bret to come back. Loved Bret mixing up the "5 Moves" by locking Pritchard up for a suplex, and swiftly going for a small package instead. The ending features some outside inteference, but in a way that I loved. Some Cornette inteference on the floor creates an opening for Owen Hart to come down. Owen picks up Bret from the floor and throws him back into the ring, hilariously saying to the camera "He always needs my help getting up". However, as Owen heads back down the aisle, Bret has managed to lock Pritchard in the Sharpshooter for the submission. Owen gives this great disbelieving as Bret beckons him to the ring, really builds up the Mania match. Really enjoyed this.

WWF Royal Rumble 1994

Last year, I did a super-topical Royal Rumble post on the day of the event, so decided it'd be an idea to do one again this year. As I'm in the middle of my 1994 Raw project, I thought it'd make sense to do the 1994 Rumble, the first one I watched when my parents got Sky

Tatanka vs Bam Bam Bigelow

This was supposed to be Tatanka vs Ludwig Borga, but Borga was injured. Probably an upgrade to get Bigelow here, with the result being a decent little PPV opener. It kicks off at a high tempo, as Bigelow tries to jump Tatanka before the bell, but Tatanka uses his speed to avoid the attack, and manages to take control. Nice DDT by Tatanka, but he misses a big crossbody. Bigelow hits a corner splash on Tatanka, getting real nice speed on it. Bam Bam slows things down with a bearhug, but it’s a bit embarrassing as he initially tries to hold Tatanka in the air, but has to put him down right away. Bigelow doesn’t even bother working the bearhug, so it’s a dull period of the match. There’s a double crossbody spot where both guys fly into each other at full speed. Bigelow stops Tatanka hulking up with an enzuigiri, which is a nice touch, but he misses a moonsault. Tatanka hits a top rope crossbody for the win.

Bret Hart & Owen Hart vs the Quebecers

I was interested to revisit this match because, as memorable as the match-ending angle is, you don’t really hear much said about the match. On the whole it’s quite fun, though not as memorable as you’d hope from these two teams. I really liked Jacques’ heeling it up after Owen gets the best of him, hugging Pierre and cowering on his knees. Bret going for flash pins early makes sense, given that he and Owen still had the Rumble to come. The Quebecers briefly get control of Bret, and Owen keeps doing more harm than good by trying to get in the ring, as it draws the attention of the ref away from the Quebecers cheating. This is an ongoing theme throughout the match, which builds up Owen’s hot-headedness and desperation to win for the final angle. Loved Owen’s beautiful overhead belly-to-belly on Pierre when he does get in. Then the big match-changing spot occurs, as some Johnny Polo interference causes Bret to crash through the ropes to the floor, injuring his leg. The Quebecers focus on this injury, including a nasty looking leap off the ringsteps to the knee. All the time, an impetuous Owen is trying to get to Bret and distracting the referee. Even as Owen brawls with Pierre, Jacques is hitting Bret in the leg with a foreign object. Pierre goes for the top rope cannonball to the leg, but Bret moves just in time. Bret opts to try the Sharpshooter rather than tag Owen (a stupid move, though you could justify it by pointing out that Bret is the wrong side of Pierre), but can’t hold the move due to his injury. The ref instantly calls off the match (though the Fink is keen to point out “Bret Hart DID NOT submit” on his announcement), and a furious Owen kicks out Bret’s leg. Fun match to start off a great angle.

Razor Ramon vs IRS

Both guys exchange some nice punches early, nicely surprised by IRS. Razor takes a huge bump over the top running the ropes. I was really happy to see someone reverse the “heel leaps off the top rope to hit unknown move, only for the face to get his boot up” trope, as IRS grabs the foot and hits a big elbow to Razor. Unfortunately, this is the highlight of IRS’ offensive run, as the rest is pretty pedestrian. It also includes a really long chinlock. A ref bump sees the end, as Shawn Michaels runs in to level Razor with his phony IC title, and after a loooong time, IRS crawls over to cover Ramon for the win. However, a 2^nd ref comes in to advise what happened and the match gets restarted. Rather unfairly, as IRS is still celebrating his win on the 2^nd rope, and he gets planted with a Razor’s Edge for the victory. An uneventful bout.

The Undertaker vs Yokozuna

Another match that’s more famous for the post-match angle. The match itself is pretty lacklustre, and painfully slow. After the two exchange some chairshots outside the ring, Yoko thinks a clothesline is enough to conquer the Undertaker, so really takes his time putting him in the coffin. It’s not. Taker hits a sloppy chokeslam, that looks more like Yoko slipping on a banana, and a big DDT to roll Yoko into the casket. You can see Taker desperately killing time for the first outside attacker to stop him closing the lid, before Crush turns up, followed by the Great Kabuki, Tenryu, Bigelow, Adam Bomb, Jeff Jarrett, both Headshrinkers and Diesel. We all know what happens next (urn blows green smoke, heels close Taker in the coffin, Taker talks to the audience from the coffin and rises to the ceiling), but the boring match is often forgotten about as a reason to hate this whole deal.

Royal Rumble

Scott Steiner and Samu start off, which is pretty fun as neither is afraid to lay in their blows. Owen is brought back as an early entrant, earning major heat. The heel turn definitely worked. Diesel gets his first vestiges of a big push, as he gets to go on an elimination spree. He clears the ring (with Owen’s elimination getting a big pop, and clears the ring one-by-one of the next entrants…Bob Backlund, Billy Gunn, Virgil (much to the delight of Ted DiBiase on commentary). This conveniently gives enough time for them to cut to the back where Jim Cornette’s hired guns Tenryu and Kabuki are beating up Lex Luger. Back in the ring, Randy Savage comes out and is a big enough star that Diesel doesn’t get to eliminate him. We get glimpses of a potentially great Savage/Jarrett match, which I don’t think ever took place (but I’d love to be wrong), but Jarrett is quickly eliminated. Loved the ferocity of Savage’s attack on an entering Crush, you can really feel the hate between the two. Savage gets eliminated, and we get a Diesel/Crush segment. Doink enters and stands back, laughing at the two heels fighting, until they look over and spot him. They rightly batter him, then present him on a platter for an entering Bam Bam Bigelow. Bammer hurls him over the top to the floor. Loved that.

Shawn Michaels soon enters and, after facing off with his bodyguard Diesel, shakes hand with him. However, Shawn does nothing to stop his friend being eliminated, setting the tone for a year of tension between the two. Both Mabel and Mo from Men On A Mission end up in the ring at the same time, but seem to be idiots as they barely work together. You’d think Mo would be desperate for Mabel to help him. Instead, when all the entrants gang up on Mabel, Mo is left standing idly by like a moron until Shawn attacks him. The way Mo was just gormlessly staring, he needn’t have bothered. Luger comes out to a decent pop and swiftly eliminates the useless mercenary Kabuki. Tenryu is out next and, though he’s also being paid to make sure Luger doesn’t win, he doesn’t actually spend much time fighting Lex, which was surely the point of him entering. A non-entrant is believed by the commentary team to be Bret. Bret does come out a couple of entrants later, earning a massive pop. However, he gets no offence on getting in, as Crush goes right to the leg. I liked the continuity of Marty Jannetty going right after Michaels upon getting in the ring. Reminds me of how Tito and Martel would always square off in the Rumble. Somehow, fucking Mo is still around at the end of the Rumble, and takes a shitty elimination – he gets superkicked while facing away from the ropes, then spins round and dives over the top. So bad. The final four is Bret, Lex, Michaels and Fatu, going down to just Bret and Lex as they simultaneously eliminate the other two. The two exchange blows and both end up going over at the same time to be crowned joint-winners. A memorable end to a decent Rumble match.

WWF Raw 10/01/1994

The Quebecers vs Marty Jannetty & 1-2-3

Really fun match, and actually really well booked. Given that the Quebecers were due to defend the tag belts vs Bret and Owen at the Rumble in two weeks, you’d give Kid and Jannetty no chance. The story here was that the Quebecers were looking past their opponents here, which gives Kid and Marty the opening to dominate the early goings with quick tags and some nice double team offence. Loved Jannetty elevating Kid to allow him to hit a high dropkick. During the break, we see Kid/Jannetty had “won” the match following a Jannetty superkick, only for the Quebecer to have his foot on the ropes and the match continue. This normally is used to protect the team that’s going to lose. The Quebecers are still getting overrun, and it takes Pierre pushing Kid off the top rope to the floor to get an advantage. They decimate Kid with some big double teams, including a lovely clothesline/legsweep combo. Jacques piledrives Kid and Pierre hits a top rope cannonball. This should be the end, but the Quebecers are so confident that they go for a second. This allows Jannetty to come in (cheat?) and drag Kid to his corner for the hot tag. Jannetty runs wild and this lets him and Kid hits a suplex/crossbody to pin Jacques for real and the titles. Massive shock result, and a really cleverly booked match. Loved this. 

Ludvig Borga vs Brad Anderson

Pretty crap squash to be honest. Borga is pretty plodding and the most exciting part is probably Anderson hitting a few clotheslines. Borga wins with a torture rack. 

The Undertaker vs Ray Hudson

The description of this episode on the Network describes Hudson, rather sarcastically, as “ever impressive". Another dull squash, with Taker throwing Hudson to the floor for some blows, then throwing him back in for a low elevation chokeslam. Taker finishes with a leaping tombstone. 

Bam Bam Bigelow vs Bastion Booger

This is a heel vs heel match set up by Booger’s lust for Luna causing them to lose a tag match the previous week. They cut a decent tempo here in a match that gets no reaction. Bigelow takes a big bump over the top on a missed charge, so Luna blows kisses to Booger to distract and allow BBB to recover. He does this with a botched slam, a real slam and the diving headbutt to win. Pretty poor.