WWF Monday Night Raw 19/09/1994

Lex Luger vs Executioner Agony

Feels like Lex should have run through Agony, rather than having to resort to small packages and (briefly) getting heat worked on him. Like Lex leapfrogging over a backdrop attempt before hitting some clotheslines and the torture rack to win.

Jerry Lawler vs Duke “The Dumpster” Droese

Super fun Lawler performance here, just totally entertaining schtick throughout. Right from the start, he locks a simple headlock on Droese, shit talks to the crowd, gets picked up and thrown across the ring, then cowers behind the ref. Droese hits a string of ten punches in the corner, which Lawler sells by faceplanting. Lawler takes over by luring Droese into a test of strength, then punching him with a foreign object from his tights. Absolutely loved Lawler peppering Droese with punches, then jumping to the second rope to celebrate. Such a dick. Lawler hits the 2^nd rope fist drop and a piledriver, but his ego gets the best of him and he decides to empty Droese’s own bin onto him. However, inside is Dink, who squirts Lawler in the face with a water pistol, and the King chases him, getting counted out in the process. Total King showcase, he was superb here.

The Heavenly Bodies vs Mike Bell & Steve King

We’re joined in progress, and the Bodies just demolish King, Bell never even gets in the match. The Bodies are such fun offensive wrestlers, everything looks so good. Del Ray nails a lovely Northern Lights suplex and a huge clothesline, Pritchard hits a great gutwrench powerbomb (baffling the Macho Man on commentary, who claims never to have seen that before) and Del Ray finishes with a moonsault.

Bob Holly vs Richie Rich

Interestingly, the commentary and match graphic both say “Bob Holly”, but you can clearly hear the Fink saying “Thurman Sparky Plugg” in the background. This followed an angle where Bob Backlund had brutalised a WWF magazine writer with the chicken wing, so this is sub two-minute filler while the crowd recovers. Holly throws some awful armdrags, but hits a lovely dropkick and a top rope crossbody to win.

Yokozuna vs Phil Apollo

Yoko interestingly doesn’t use any of his usual moves here – no belly-to-belly, no legdrop, no running corner splash. He just viciously beat away on Apollo, trapping him in the corner and punching him down. Boots and chokes follow, leaving Apollo in a prone position for the Bansai Drop for three. Different edge to Yoko, made a nice change of pace.

WWF Monday Night Raw 25/07/1994

Tatanka vs Nikolai Volkoff

This is a $10,000 Challenge match, with Ted DiBiase putting up a prize if Tatanka can beat Volkoff. Jim Ross perfectly describes Volkoff, claiming “He’s not a smooth wrestler, but a powerful one”, as Volkoff slowly beats Tatanka down. His clubbing blows look good, but in contrast his kicks look absurdly weak. Tatanka comes back with a nice clothesline, looks more like he just runs up and whacks Volkoff hard in the side of the head. Tatanka gets the win by rolling up Volkoff on an attempted slam, but man this doesn’t exactly build him up for a match with Luger at Summerslam. Taking a beating from 47yr old Nikolai for most of the match isn’t exactly designed to make him look strong.

The Headshrinkers vs Barry Hardy & Joey Stallings

Stupidly, we go to commercial just as the Shrinkers reach the ring. We return to the Shrinkers just destroying Stallings. Nice DDT from the corner by Samu, before they just beat Stallings down in their corner. Double team Stroke is followed by a top rope Fatu splash for the win. Hardy never gets in.

Jim Neidhart vs Jim Powers

Powers gets sent to the floor at the start with this insanely high elevation. After that, it’s a pretty generic squash, all choking and clubbing by the Anvil. The end sees him lock in a sort of Dragon sleeper Camel Clutch, though he barely has Powers’ head under his control.

Adam Bomb vs Yokozuna

Curiously worked, feels like they want to keep Bomb strong, but aside from an opening shoulderblock that sends Yoko to the floor, he gets nothing for the majority of the bout. It’s all Yoko, until Bomb avoids a corner charge. Liked Yoko ducking a clothesline, only for Bomb to hit him with a DDT instead. The match looks to be hotting up, until Kwang trips Bomb from the floor, drawing him out and resulting in a count out. Not much to this.

Duke Droese vs Duane Gill

Fun squash, with the Dumpster just overpowering Gill all match. Big press slam, nice bearhug and a good slam are followed by the Trash Compacter for the win. This was good enough.

WWF Raw 20/06/1994

Diesel vs Mark Thomas

Thomas is quite a well built jobber, so he’s a good choice to make Diesel look like a beast. Diesel shows a nice little bit of aggression here, hitting a big knee right from the lock up. Thomas decides to bump snake eyes right on top of his head before the Jack-knife finishes. Decent enough.

1-2-3 Kid vs Nikolai Volkoff

Bizarrely, the winner of this match gets a title match against Bret Hart. So, I guess Volkoff’s squash win over a pre-fame Matt Hardy was sufficient to put him in the title frame right away. Kid does a lot here to make Volkoff look good, running with gusto into shoulderblocks and making him look like a brick wall. Volkoff does a few nice bits, good looking butterfly suplex and a pair of press slams into a back breaker, but makes the mistake of picking kid up on 2 counts. Really don’t think you can afford to risk a title match at this stage of your career, Nikolai. Kid seems to jar his knee in the corner, but it turns out he’s faking it to roll up Volkoff for the win. So the title match goes to the man who has to fake an injury to sneak a win over ancient Nikolai Volkoff.

Yokozuna vs Nick Barberi

Love the early contrast as Barberi throws a handful of ineffectual punches before getting felled by one blow from Yoko. Yoko shows some nice aggression, clawing at Barberi’s face whilst choking him, before hitting a belly-to-belly and a legdrop to win.

Typhoon vs the Black Phantom

Pretty basic squash, but I really dug Typhoon’s suplexes. He doesn’t bother hooking an arm, he just puts his opponent in a front facelock and hoists him over with raw power. Looks great. A corner splash and a normal splash get the win.

Heavenly Bodies vs Jim Powers & Russ Greenberg

Oddly, the early stages of this match mark out Powers as more than a handful for both Bodies. Both Del Ray and Pritchard bump around for his generic offence, and even a double team ends with Powers booting one of them in the face and getting a small package on the other. All this whilst Jim Cornette on commentary hypes them as tag title contenders. Very odd. Greenberg is less effective, , eating a superkick right away. Nice Bodies double teams follow – a great elevated DDT, a leaping sideslam and Pritchard holding Greenberg in place for a Del Ray moonsault press. Fun stuff after the odd Powers run.

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 03/04/1994

Earthquake vs Adam Bomb

This is a WrestleMania X rematch, though this one goes a little longer. Quake controls with ease to start, no-selling shoulderblocks and ducking a Bomb clothesline in order to hit his own. Bomb takes over with a nice flying clothesline. There’s an underlying story of Bomb being over-presumptuous during the bout, missing an elbow because Quake isn’t hurt enough then not getting the pin off a top rope clothesline by conferring with Harvey Wippleman before pinning. This builds to the ending, where he rushes into a boot from a corner charge, before eating a massive belly-to-belly suplex, a legdrop and the seated splash for the Quake win.

Razor Ramon vs Austin Steele

Basic squash, with Razor casually going through his moveset. Ramon acts quite heeling, slapping Steele about and contemptuously kicking him in the head. Steele lands viciously on the Razor’s Edge and that gets the win.

IRS, Rick Martel, Jeff Jarrett & the Headshrinkers vs 1-2-3 Kid, Sparky Plugg, Tatanka & the Smoking Gunns

This is the delayed match from Wrestlemania, but it’s still curious to see the Headshrinkers on the heel team directly after showing a video of their face turn. They lay the match out to give everyone a brief chance to shine, and it’s interesting to see how people use it. The opening segment between Billy Gunn and Samu is really good, ending with Gunn taking a big 360 bump off a clothesline. The terrible flying headscissors Billy hits on Jarrett is less impressive. Plugg uses his chance to shine to hold an armbar on Martel, which isn’t very interesting, but 1-2-3 Kid decides to hit as many moves as possible in his 2 minutes, looking crisp throughout. It all breaks down and, in the hubbub, Kid misses a corner charge and gets rolled up by IRS for the clean win. This was pretty fun.

Yokozuna vs Scott Powers

Really quick squash here. Yoko’s back suplex is really nice looking, gets really snap on it. Legdrop and Banzai Drop get the swift win.

WWF Raw 28/2/1994

Randy Savage vs Yokozuna

Even though you knew Savage wasn’t going to win this match so close to Mania, they still did a good job of building this up, including Savage talking about doing the right thing and defending the title vs Luger and Bret. This was a really good effort from both men, with Savage setting a high tempo early by attacking Yoko before the bell. Savage is on fire, getting a close 2 on a clotheslines, and though Yoko tries to subdue him on the mat, Savage is too resilient and evades a Yoko splash. I liked Savage knocking Yoko to the outside, but really struggling to get the big man back in the ring. It made Savage look good, as if Yoko was only just holding on, and it allowed Jim Cornette to distract Savage and give Yokozuna the opening he needed to take control. They’re putting Savage over strongly here, so he soon regain control, and I loved Yoko’s wobble-selling as Savage hits a series of punches and a double-ax handle to try and knock him down. The end sees Fuji handing a wooden salt bucket to Yoko, only for Savage to grab it and use it himself. Flying elbow looks to have won it, but Crush comes in for the DQ. Really good bout.

Bam Bam Bigelow vs Mike Khoury

Bland squash. Bigelow mainly hits punches and drops some elbows, though I liked him catching Khoury on a crossbody and hitting a World’s Strongest Slam. Standing enzuigiri gives Bigelow the win.

Earthquake vs Black Phantom

Phantom was a pre-fame, in-good-shape Gangrel. This was pretty enjoyable, including a fun spot where Quake dropped an elbow when Phantom did a dropdown from a Irish whip. Nice fat man dropkick from Earthquake, and a slam and sitdown splash finish.

Kwang vs John Chrystal

The Kwang gimmick sucked, but this is the second fun Kwang squash we’ve seen. Nice series of kicks, big meaty slams and a nice superkick to the jaw to win. No complaints here.

Men On A Mission vs the Brooklyn Brawler & Steve Smith

It’s for the best to pretend the Mo sections didn’t happen. His offense never looks good, and he’s pretty pointless. Mabel is really fun as the dominating force, hitting a massive legdrop on the Brawler, though his elbow drop only seems to graze Smith. Assisted splash on Smith gets the job done.

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 Monday Night Raw 03/01/1994

As well as my ongoing WCW 1992 project, I decided to use the Network to watch all the Raw's from 1994. This was the start of my second big moment as a wrestling fan, as my parents bought Sky, allowing me to watch WWF programming weekly. I've not seen this stuff since it first aired, so it should be interesting to revisit

Yokozuna vs Dan Dubeil

Before this match started, I was pretty sure I remembered Dan Dubeil’s name for some reason. This is a really fun squash, with Yoko just ragdolling Dubeil. There’s a lovely snap to a slam and a great looking belly-to-belly suplex. Then the reason I remembered Dubeil’s name….Yoko hits the Banzai Drop and lets his legs out, just squashing poor Dubeil. Brutal end to a great squash.

 

The Smoking Gunns vs Bam Bam Bigelow & Bastion Booger

Though both members of the heel team are big guys, Bammer is noticeably more agile and mobile than Booger. With Bigelow in the ring, the Gunns are able to use their speed advantage to take control, with Bigelow able to bump and make them look good. With Booger in, he’s so cumbersome that the Gunns end up bumping around for him more, to make his offence look more impactful. Bart Gunn even takes a 360 bump off a Booger clothesline. I liked the spot where Bart tried to take Booger down with a sunset flip and Billy came in to hit Booger with a bulldog, which would make sense as Bastion would be trying to lean forward to avoid Bart taking him down. The heels work a rather dull heat section on Bart, before the hot tag sees the Gunns run wild on Bigelow. Outside, Luna Vachon rubs Booger’s hump to revive him, and he takes this as a sign of her affection for him. This leads to a rather horrid ending as Booger essentially molests Luna, and Bammer rolls out to attack him, leading to the Gunns countout win 

Jeff Jarrett vs John Chrystal

Decent squash, and one where Jarrett was clearly already in command of his character. Loved him ducking out of the ring at the very start, and cheapshotting an opponent he’s superior to over the referee’s shoulder. Jarrett is pretty cocky during the match, and this keeps leading to Chrystal getting shock roll-ups on him, which in turn leads to Jarrett cranking up the aggression before the cycle repeats. JJ gets the win with a spiking DDT 

Shawn Michaels vs Brian Walsh

Curiously, Michaels gives Walsh loads here, even letting him get the better of Michaels on the mat. Walsh gets two from a slingshot, before Michaels cuts him off. Right away, Michaels throws Walsh out to Diesel twice in succession, as if wanting to cut off the threat in it’s prime. Michaels works a rather dull chinlock before Walsh gets another roll-up for 2. Michaels hits Sweet Chin Music and a piledriver to win the weakest squash of the show.