WWE WrestleMania X

WWE WrestleMania X

March 24, 1994

Madison Square Garden

New York City, New York

Yeah I might have seen this show a few times. Ten years in the making, and the WWE returns to Madison Square Garden. The payoff for the double finish between Luger and Hart was that both guys would get a title shot at WrestleMania. President Jack Tunney held a coin toss. The winner of the toss would get the first title match against Yokozuna, while the loser of the toss would go on last. To make things fair, the loser of the toss would have a separate match in the opening match. Had Luger lost, he would’ve faced off against Crush. Since Bret lost, the world was forced to see some lame match between Bret Hart and Owen Hart. This show would pretty much be the final stamp that the Hulk Hogan era was over. That would also be evident because 3 months later, Hogan would be in WCW, and the wrestling world would never be the same. This was a night of celebration though.

Commentators: Vince McMahon and Jerry “The King” Lawler

*Rated #1 on my Top 50 WrestleMania matches of all time*

“The Rocket” Owen Hart vs. Bret “The Hitman” Hart

There have been many great matches at WrestleMania, and if anyone disagreed with my selection of this one as #1 I certainly wouldn’t mind at all. This to me is what wrestling is all about. Two brothers going out and putting on a wrestling clinic. Bret talks about how the key in the match was for Owen to be just a slimy filthy heel, and Bret not to go overboard in beating him down because Owen might get sympathy heat. They play this beautiful dance on that fine line throughout the entire match. They pulled out all of the moves, including an awesome tombstone piledriver from Owen. Owen went up for the diving head butt and Bret moved out of the way. At this point you know that the only way Owen is going to be able to beat his older brother was on a surprise move. The action spilled to the outside where Bret injured his knee, and Owen attacks it like a vulture. Just classic heel tactics and the crowd just HATES him for it. This all is illustrated wonderfully by Vince and Lawler with Lawler at his heel commentating best. I miss the old Jerry Lawler. Owen continues the heel tactics with a low blow. He then gets Bret into the sharpshooter but Bret knows how to get out of his own hold. He tries to put it on Owen, but his knee is in too much pain. The end comes when Bret goes for the same victory roll that won him the King of the Ring tournament against Bam Bam Bigelow, but Owen steps into it on the way down and gets Bret into a pinning maneuver of his own and gets the SHOCKING 3 count. Owen’s face is priceless as he looks at the ref in shock himself. Bret’s face is equally shocking in a devastated way. He sells the leg injury and it plays up the fact that he still has a title match later in the show, and what condition will he be in? *****

Mixed Tag Team Match

Bam Bam Bigelow and Luna Vachon vs. Doink and Dink

Ok, so it goes without saying that I didn’t think much of the Doink gimmick post-evil clown days. I am not alone in that opinion. With that said, here you have yet another case of a storyline and feud that had actual thought put into it, something rarely seen today. I’m not saying the story itself is great by any stretch, but the WWE had two workers, and they had something to do with them on the midcard. Doink antagonized Bam Bam from the fall of 1993 on through the winter of 1994 until the payoff at WrestleMania X. They inserted Luna and Dink for added effect because Doink made Luna’s life a living hell too. The match isn’t great and Bam Bam gets the win with his diving head butt. The best part of the match is Lawler clamoring for Bam Bam to get his hands on Dink and Vince playing it off with outrage. * ¼         

Falls Count Anywhere

“Macho Man” Randy Savage vs. Crush w/ Mr. Fuji

This is Savage’s WrestleMania swan song. This is more like a Texas Death match than a falls count anywhere. This is one of my favorite non-high profile feuds of the 90’s. Crush was a baby face and Yokozuna put him out for a few weeks before SummerSlam. Crush blamed Savage for pushing him into a match with Yokozuna knowing that he wasn’t 100 %. When Crush returned they had the “Savage-Crush Summit meeting” where Crush turned heel and attacked Savage. He press slammed him over the steel barricade which Savage sold like death. From then on, Savage and Crush attacked each other and officials would always have to break up the brawl. It was a great feud that pumped a little life into Randy Savage who was basically just a figurehead at this point in WWE. The match is pretty decent, Savage attacks Crush in the aisle, but Crush recovers and drops Savage on the steel barricade again and gets the pin. Nice storytelling there. Savage now has 60 seconds to get back into the ring. He does and makes a comeback. He drops the big elbow on Crush and pins him. This time Crush gets back into the ring and the two brawl to the backstage area where Savage finally pins Crush and ties him up in the back. Simple, but effective brawl and nice way to blow off the big feud. Not only is this Savage’s WrestleMania swan song, but it’s basically his WWE swan song as he would do nothing between now, and his departure in November. He would be in WCW hanging out with Hogan by the end of 1994. ** ¾

WWE Women’s Championship

Alundra Blayze (champion) vs. Leilani Kai

The WWE signed Blayze (better known perhaps as Medusa) to re-ignite the non-existent women’s division, which hadn’t really existed for about 5 years. This match isn’t anything special, but serves its purpose to sell Medusa as the leader of the women’s division. She wins with her German suplex. Nothing special. ¾ *

WWE Tag Team Championship

Quebecers (Jacques and Pierre) (champions) w/ Johnny Polo vs. Men on a Mission (Mabel and Mo) w/ Oscar

The tag division in 1994 was all but dead, and it was made even worse by the clique later in the year when Shawn Michaels and Diesel would win the titles and then become just trophies for them to carry around. At this point, the Quebecers were still the champions, and I enjoyed them as heel champions, but they just didn’t have the depth of teams to work with as previous great heel champions did. This match would predictably end in some sort of count out or disqualification. Count out was the prescription here, as MOM wins but Quebecers retain. Match itself was just added filler. * ¼

WWE Championship

Mr. Perfect as Special Referee

Yokozuna (champion) w/ Mr. Fuji and Jim Cornette vs. Lex Luger

This is the first of two WWE title matches. Conventional wisdom at the time (and perhaps even now depending on your opinion) says Luger goes over here to give us a Hart-Luger main event. Mr. Perfect is the special referee. I love Lawler’s heel commentary complaining all match that Perfect is biased. That is about the only highlight of this match. This is also known as the match where Yoko puts Luger in a nerve hold which feels like it lasts for 10 minutes. Luger makes the inevitable comeback, but starts tossing managers into the ring, so Perfect doesn’t count 3 after Luger knocks Yokozuna out. Then Luger shoves Perfect and gets disqualified for the screw job finish. Yokozuna retains in a forgettable match. Not even close to their SummerSlam encounter the previous year. Legend has it that Luger was in some Manhattan bar the night before proclaiming he was going to be WWE champion. That story seems like bullshit to me, but many claim it’s true. ¾ * Luger goes to the back to find Perfect. This was supposed to segue into them finishing up their program together that pretty much got cut short in 1993 but it didn’t happen as Perfect wasn’t ready to go yet.

Adam Bomb w/ Harvey Wippleman vs. Earthquake

For a couple years Wippleman would constantly insult ring announcer Howard Finkel. Tonight he went too far and Howard shoved him. Adam Bomb comes in and threatens Finkel, but Earthquake comes in and makes the save, and squashes Bomb in less than a minute. DUD Earthquake was just returning, he would turn his attention to feud with Yokozuna before heading off to WCW to hang out with Hogan.

*Rated #5 on my Top 50 WrestleMania matches of all time*

WWE IC Championship

Ladder Match

Razor Ramon (champion) vs. Shawn Michaels w/ Diesel

Yeah this match is rather famous. There were ladder matches before this one, even one involving Shawn. While that is true this is the one that put the Ladder match as we know it today on the map. With the insane spot fests known as TLC matches and Money in the Bank matches, there are those that suggest that this match doesn’t hold up. I cannot disagree more. This match has (overwhelmingly) more psychology and more storytelling than any clusterfuck of a match you can find today. You start with Diesel getting thrown out by the ref early on which is a great moment because the crowd eats it up and it makes the match a straight one on one contest early. Then it becomes Shawn having a match with a ladder as many have pointed out. This is also the point in Shawn’s career where he becomes untouchable as a performer. From this point on through his first retirement, he is absolute gold in the ring. Every spot with the ladder is deliberate and with purpose and very little slow climbing which annoys me. It’s a back and forth affair and you really don’t know who is going to win. Finally Razor throws a shoulder block into the ladder with Shawn on it and Michaels crotches himself on the top rope and gets tied up. Razor climbs the ladder and gets both belts to become the undisputed IC Champion. Just a flawless match that only an idiot would think doesn’t hold up today. This is the ladder match that all other ladder matches after would be compared to. You can pretty much find this match anywhere, so if you haven’t seen it yet… see it. *****

Main Event

WWE Championship

Special Referee Rowdy Roddy Piper

Yokozuna (champion) w/ Mr. Fuji and Jim Cornette vs. Bret “The Hitman” Hart

Lawler once again with heel commentating brilliance screaming about what an injustice it is to have Piper as the ref. This is one of my favorite matches ever. Certainly not because it dazzles, but because this is Bret’s shining WrestleMania moment. He limps out to the ring still selling the leg injury, not to mention the mental anguish of losing to little brother Owen in the opening match. This is truly David vs. goliath. Kind of a weird finish here as Yokozuna goes for the big banzai drop and falls off the rope essentially slamming himself, and Bret crawls on the big man and gets the win and the title from the guy who beat him the year before. ** ¾ Lex Luger comes out  after the match and shakes the hand of the new champion. Before you know it, everyone is out to celebrate with Bret. Luger and Razor Ramon put Bret on their shoulders in celebration of the mighty heel champion finally vanquished. Owen Hart comes out seemingly to celebrate, but he just gives his big brother the cold stare. Bret gives the I love you’s to the MSG crowd as the show goes off the air.

Final Analysis: Bottom line is there isn’t another show that I know of, that has two ***** matches. Yes the undercard is pretty horrible, but this show isn’t known for anything other than the two great matches, and a wonderful feel-good moment to close out the show. Lex Luger was the big casualty as he would be relegated to midcard hell for the next year and a half. 1994 would be the year that the infamous clique would rise to power and by the end of the year; Bret himself would be pushed to the background. On this night though, Bret was king and set to continue his great feud with his brother Owen. I think that one of the great things about this show is that it really represents the last of an era where long-term storylines were the norm instead of the exception.

WWE Royal Rumble '94

WWE Royal Rumble ‘94

January 22, 1994

Providence Civic Center

Providence, Rhode Island

1994 would become what I sort of envisioned 1993 to be, and that was a year of total change for the WWE. 1993 would have been that way but the Hulk Hogan debacle midway through the year kept that from really happening. WWE was even going to be starting to market their brand is the “New Generation.” They would be facing their biggest challenges in years to come, but the change was necessary. This show is one of my personal favorites. I don’t know why. It just is. You could tell that the show represented something different in that it truly was a new year and a new generation. Rocky times are ahead but the golden age of the Hogan era was definitely behind them by January 1994.

Commentators: Vince McMahon and “Million Dollar Man” Ted Dibiase

Tatanka vs. Bam Bam Bigelow w/ Luna Vachon

This was originally supposed to be Tatanka vs. Ludvig Borga, but Borga got hurt I believe, and Bigelow was substituted in. Good choice as they did have history against each other as they feuded in the summer of 1993. This is a fine little opener as the crowd is super hot for Tatanka and Bigelow plays the perfect heel in this situation. Pretty much nonstop action from bell to bell. The end comes when Bam Bam misses the moonsault and Tatanka hits a cross body block from the top for the 3 count. Good way to get the crowd energized. ** ¾

WWE Tag Team Championship

Quebecers (Jacques and Pierre) (champions) w/ Johnny Polo vs. Bret “The Hitman” Hart and “The Rocket” Owen Hart

Johnny Polo is more commonly known as Raven for most of you. What’s funny about this match is that you know what is going to happen. It is so predictable, and I always think about this match when I hear some idiot who says “predictability is the worst, nothing good can come of it.”  Sometimes predictability can be a good thing and this is a prime example. If you remember at the Survivor Series, little brother Owen was none too pleased that he was the only member of the Hart clan to get eliminated by Shawn Michaels, and he blamed Bret. They “patched” things up over the holidays and decided to team up together against the Quebecers for the titles. At that point you just know where this is going, and the payoff was fantastic. The match itself was excellent as you would imagine with just about any match involving Bret and Owen. The heel Quebecers play such great heels too as eventually the match turns bad for Bret. He injures his knee on the outside and the Quebecers are like vultures much to the dismay of Owen who wants so desperately his first title. The end comes when Bret is too injured to tag Owen so he tries to put his sharpshooter on Pierre, but his leg gives out. The ref stops the match and the Quebecers retain. Owen is absolutely furious that Bret didn’t make the tag. He proceeds to scream at his brother when he is down. Finally Bret makes it to his feet only to have Owen kick his leg and knock him back down again. One of the best heel turns ever and Owen is instantly one of the top heels in the company. This leads to the famous post match promo with Owen where he says “and that’s why I kicked your leg out of your leg.” Just pure, raw emotion. Great storytelling by two of the best. ****

WWE IC Championship

Razor Ramon (champion) vs. IRS

I sort of raved about the storytelling of this feud, and don’t get me wrong it was great, but it wasn’t what the fans wanted to see. But the beauty of this match is that it was a perfect way to set up exactly what the fans did want to see which Razor Ramon against Shawn Michaels was. This is an ok match, standard stuff from both guys, but things get interesting when the ref gets knocked out, and in comes Shawn. He attacks Razor with his bogus IC belt, and IRS gets the pin and the win. Then we get a bit of a Dusty finish here as a 2^nd ref comes down and points out that there are two IC belts in the ring. Before you know it, Razor is giving IRS the Razor’s edge and retaining the IC Title. Razor celebrates with both the IC title belts but the seeds are sewn for a huge showdown with Shawn Michaels, which will come at WrestleMania X. You may have even heard of the match before too… the Ladder match. ** ¼

WWE Championship

Casket Match

Yokozuna (champion) w/ Mr. Fuji and Jim Cornette vs. Undertaker w/ Paul Bearer

This is a rather famous match, though not in a good way. After Survivor Series, this feud was big. It was well put together and it was a showdown that a lot of people wanted to see. Problem. Undertaker wanted to take some time off. So how do you write arguably your biggest star out of the stories for several months? Easy, you have a casket match and have about 9 guys interfere and attack him. Then you have him give his own eulogy inside the casket, then have the casket “explode” on the videotron, and have him seemingly ascend to the heavens. If that sounds ridiculous, it’s because it pretty much is. I liked it, most didn’t. ¼ * Just like that though, a big main event payoff is sort of flushed down the toilet here.

Main Event

Royal Rumble

The roster is rather thin in 1994, so you have a few guys doing double-duty tonight, and a couple of replacements. Still, I love love love this rumble. For their lack in depth they made up for in telling a nice story. Early on it was Diesel mowing through a bunch of jobbers, and then you escalate the Savage feud with Crush, and have Crush eliminate Savage thus giving him the rub. They must’ve really wanted to do more with Crush in 1994 than they ultimately did. Bam Bam Bigelow gets some revenge on Doink, and then it turns into a bit of a clusterfuck. Only thing I didn’t like about the match is that there were just a few too many people in the ring at one time. But Luger picks things up along with Shawn Michaels who helps eliminate his buddy Diesel. Then Bret Hart, still selling the leg injury like a champion, comes out to a huge ovation. Not sure Bret Hart was any more over as a baby-face than he was on this night. I give a lot of credit to Owen for that. The match comes down to Bret, Luger, Shawn, and Headshrinker Fatu. It should be pointed out, that Shawn Michaels had a great performance in this Rumble as well, very underrated as it is overshadowed by his wins in 1995 and 1996. Bret and Shawn had a nice little mini-match here, and then finally Luger eliminates Shawn, and Bret takes care of Fatu leaving the two big baby-faces to go at it. Match spills into a double elimination, and apparently this was done as sort of a popularity contest for Vince to find out who the crowd would support… Bret or Luger. Bret wins that contest hands down as the crowd is clearly behind Bret. After a long debate between refs and President Jack Tunney, Bret and Luger are declared co-winners. Again, not a lot of people like this rumble, but it is one of my favorites ever. I may be overrating it but I don’t care. **** ¾

Final Analysis: This was a fantastic set up for WrestleMania X. What WWE lacked in roster depth, they made up for in nice storylines. Yes the Undertaker stuff was pretty bad and defies disbelief (more than pro-wrestling already does) but the main matches for WrestleMania X are sold here. Shawn-Razor? Check. Bret-Owen? Hell yeah! Savage-Crush? Absolutely. Add to that you have the lead up to what they were going to do with the WWE title situation. Yokozuna against his old nemesis Lex Luger, and of course, the determined, hungry tiger, Bret Hart seeking to become once again the WWE champion after getting screwed out of it at WrestleMania IX. The stories make sense. They had a plan, and they executed it to perfection. Yeah, I like this show if you didn’t notice.

WWE Survivor Series '93

WWE Survivor Series ‘93

November 24, 1993

Boston Garden

Boston, Massachusetts

As time went on in the fall of 1993, it finally became apparent that Hulk Hogan was not coming back. He was thoroughly squashed by Yokozuna at the King of the Ring in June and the WWE really didn’t even make mention of it again, not even to put Yokozuna over as the man who ended Hulkamania. After choking at SummerSlam, Lex Luger began to lose some steam as well, while Yokozuna continued to be pushed as a monster heel champion. Survivor Series would once again be a major PPV event being put on for the sake of putting on a major PPV event. With that said though, things were starting to develop and take shape as far as storylines were concerned as the build to WrestleMania X really began in the fall of 1993.

Commentators: Vince McMahon and Bobby “The Brain” Heenan

8 Man Survivor Series Elimination Match

IRS (captain), Diesel, Rick “The Model” Martel, and Adam Bomb w/ Harvey Wippleman vs. Razor Ramon (captain), 1-2-3 Kid, Marty Jannetty, and “Macho Man” Randy Savage

This should be noted that this would be Bobby Heenan’s 2^nd to last broadcast (3^rd to last, he did return for the Gimmick battle royal match at WrestleMania XVII). He would be heading off to WCW for more money and a lighter schedule. It is invaluable what guys like Bobby Heenan do from the broadcast booth in terms of putting guys over. Guys like Heenan and Jesse Ventura were the masters of it. Jerry Lawler used to be pretty good at it, but it is something that is seriously lacking now. Michael Cole makes failed attempts at doing it. It’s a lost art it seems. Anyway, Mr. Perfect was originally supposed to be on Razor’s team but injuries finally caught up with Curt Hennig and he was unable to go, so Razor surprises everyone with a replacement by the name of Randy Savage. The crowd loves it, and it tells a great story too as Savage has a really hot feud with Crush going on, and they needed an excuse to have Savage in the building. This was perfect. What we have here is pretty much a perfectly booked Survivor Series match. By the end of it, everyone has done their job, and the major storylines revolving around the match get advanced. First off, you have the monster Diesel now beginning to be a full time performer instead of Shawn Michaels’ personal bodyguard. He comes in and dominates the small 123 Kid and looks like he’s going to win the match himself, but somehow the Kid survives and makes the big tag to the grizzled veteran Randy Savage, who takes advantage of Diesels inexperience in a very believable way, and gets the crowd on first by hitting the big elbow and pinning the big guy. Yes, Diesel loses, but it’s done in a way where the viewer is left thinking the guy is still a monster and will be a force to be reckoned with in the future. This was all after a little showdown between the members of Team IRS, where they all come to blows after Martel knocks Wippleman on his ass to the dismay of Adam Bomb. The crowd was just eating this up. Next up, you have to eliminate Savage somehow, because he certainly doesn’t need to be a survivor in this one. Insert his blood nemesis Crush who simply comes out and distracts Macho, and IRS gets the pin. Savage is off to the races to find Crush right after this, and this is all being told brilliantly by Heenan on commentary. Next you have to escalate the feud between the two captains, Razor Ramon and IRS. Again, it doesn’t really do much good for either of them to win this match. Ramon pins IRS after the Razors edge, IRS gets revenge by hitting Razor with the briefcase to keep his heel heat to get Razor eliminated. Again, maybe this isn’t the greatest feud of all time, but the WWE had a direction, they had a program that they had been developing since the summer between these two guys, and the feud gets escalated. Everyone wins. This leaves the Kid and Jannetty, and the classic underdog story develops against the perceived favorites in Martel and Adam Bomb. Kid and Jannetty go over, crowd is happy, Kid and Jannetty would go on to team up and win the tag titles a little over a month after this. It was an excellent way to give the Kid a major win on PPV. Everyone wins. This match is booking 101. Simple, believable stories and the match itself was excellent to boot. This is the type of simple things the WWE needs to get back to doing. As you may have guessed, this is one of my favorite Survivor Series matches ever. *** ¾

8 Man Survivor Series Elimination Match

Shawn Michaels (captain), Red Knight, Blue Knight, and Black Knight vs. Bret “The Hitman” Hart, “The Rocket” Owen Hart, Bruce Hart, and Keith Hart w/ Stu Hart

A lot of people have crapped on this match. Unfortunately Jerry Lawler had some rape allegations to adhere to and Shawn Michaels (returning from his own problems) was quickly substituted in his place for this match. Would it have been better with Lawler? Perhaps. I think there may not be a better replacement than Shawn though as he can play the antagonist as good as anyone, and he does so here. I look at it like this; they made do with what they had. Shawn is still carrying around his IC Title belt that he hadn’t lost. While he was suspended, there was a battle royal and then a singles match between the final 2 guys for the vacant IC Championship. Those two guys were Razor Ramon and Rick Martel. They had a pretty good match on RAW in which Razor came out the new IC Champ. This would set up the historic Ladder Match at WrestleMania X, but that is for another review. The Knights here are random masked wrestlers whose only purpose is to job out to the Hart family. The idea with Lawler was going to be that the Harts would have to go through the Knights and then Lawler would be left alone to get the ass whipping that the fans were clamoring for. One of the reasons people hate this match is because Shawn doesn’t play a chickenshit heel and hide behind the Knights, he comes out and basically carries the match. And that’s what I kind of like about the match. Shawn definitely carries this particularly Keith and Bruce Hart. Not sure who the Red Knight is, but the Black Knight is Bart Gunn, and the Blue Knight is Greg Valentine. The match probably goes a little longer than it should have, as there is just a bit too much Keith and Bruce. Bret and Owen take care of the Knights, leaving Shawn to fight 4 guys. Match really picks up when Shawn and Owen have a little mini-match foreshadowing some of their classics in later years. Shawn throws Owen into the ropes, but Bret is there and Owen runs into Bret sending him into the barricade. This causes Shawn to pin Owen, making Owen the only one of the Harts to get eliminated. Shawn then takes a walk and gets counted out leaving Bret, Bruce, and Keith as the Survivors, but not before overselling a punch thrown by Stu Hart, which was actually a pretty cool little moment and according to Bret’s book, Shawn felt honored to be able to do that for Stu. Owen comes back to the ring presumably to celebrate with his brothers, but instead tries to pick a fight with Bret. The Bret-Owen feud begins here, so this match has a lot of history. *** I liked the match, sue me.

SMW Tag Team Championship

Rock and Roll Express (Ricky Morton and Robert Gibson) (champions) vs. Heavenly Bodies (Tom Pritchard and Jimmy Del Ray) w/ Jim Cornette

Yes the partnership between Smoky Mountain Wrestling and WWE continues here, and we get a nice little gem of a match. Unfortunately the crowd doesn’t agree with me as they are just dead for this one. Tough crowd. Tremendous match unfolds here, and they could probably give them another 10 minutes or so and this would be an all time classic. Instead it’s your formula tag team match that you would see from the 1980’s NWA. Jim Ross and Gorilla Monsoon actually do commentary for this match, and it is rather weird to hear Jim Ross talk about the history of the feud between the Rock and Roll Express and the Midnight Express and how it evolved to this. You can tell that Jim Ross’s initial stint with WWE in 1993 is rather uncomfortable for him, and I’m sure that is why Vince fired him early in 1994 before WrestleMania. Ricky and Robert spend the first several minutes hitting all of their tag team moves, and then Ricky takes his role that he’s most known for as “face in peril” and the Bodies work him over. Match turns into chaos until Del Ray hits Gibson with the tennis racket from the top rope for the win, and the titles. Has to be seen to be appreciated. Nothing historic here as the SMW partnership in terms of what goes on WWE TV pretty much ends here. *** ¾ Crowd again, wasn’t liking it at all.

8 Man Survivor Series Elimination Match

Bam Bam Bigelow (captain), Headshrinkers (Fatu and Samu), and Bastion Booger w/ Luna Vachon and Afa vs. 4 Doinks (Mabel, Mo, Bushwhacker Butch, and Bushwhacker Luke)

This is total crap as you would probably guess. Between SummerSlam and Survivor Series, Doink turned from cool evil clown, to prankster fun-loving Doink, and pretty much made me hate him and any feud that he was a part of. This was supposed to be a “comedy” match but it is anything but funny. Basically, Men on a Mission and Bushwhackers just blitz right through Bam Bam and his team. This is the epitome of a DUD. Thankfully it was kept relatively short.

Main Event

Foreign Fanatics (Yokozuna (captain), Ludvig Borga, Crush, and Jacques) w/ Mr. Fuji, Jim Cornette, and Johnny Polo vs. All Americans (Lex Luger (captain), Undertaker, and Steiner Brothers) w/ Paul Bearer

By the end of 1993, at least you could say the booking was making sense. The roster may have been limited, but at least after the post-Hogan fiasco the booking by in large made sense. Stories were going somewhere. Case in point, this match. It isn’t the most glamorous main event of all time. It’s not going to make Team Hogan vs. Team Andre from the first Survivor Series blush or anything, but at least you can say, it makes sense. The build was good too. Despite Luger’s choke job at SummerSlam, he was still a main event player and the biggest threat to Yokozuna’s crown. He was in the middle of feuding with the other evil foreigner, Ludvig Borga. Borga was getting a mega-heel push, and (according to him) was set for a World title push and a main event at WrestleMania. I have no idea if that is true or not, but clearly he was the #2 heel in the company by the time Survivor Series rolled around. The interesting twist in this build up was that Borga ended the nearly 2 year undefeated streak of Tatanka. As a fan and still somewhat of a mark, this was a big deal. Borga and Yokozuna gave Tatanka a holy beat down and put him out, so Lex was forced to find a substitute, and he found the mother of all subs in the Undertaker. Then Lex took out Pierre of the Quebecers, forcing Cornette and company to find a substitute of their own, and they turned to the recently turned heel Crush. The match instantly became more interesting. The match itself was ok, Borga pinned Rick Steiner in a blown spot where he was supposed to catch Rick off the top rope and slam him, but he didn’t get him all the way over. Then Randy Savage came out, and got a small bit of revenge on Crush, escalating their feud, as he got him counted out. Luger took care of Jacques, and Yoko took care of Scotty, leaving the match up that the fans came to see. Yokozuna and Borga against Luger and Undertaker. This was highlighted by the long awaited showdown between Yokozuna and Undertaker. The crowd ate it up as Undertaker sat up after a banzai drop. They spilled out to the floor and both got counted out, but not before Taker no sold Yoko ramming him into the steps and Yokozuna’s scared look was great! Hindsight being what it is, Undertaker should’ve won the Rumble and then gone onto take the title from Yokozuna at WrestleMania, but instead they had the rematch at the Royal Rumble and well… that’s another review. The one who lost out on that showdown was Luger, because he was instantly relegated to #3 baby face behind Bret and Undertaker during these few minutes of the Taker-Yoko showdown. This all left Luger and Borga to battle it out for their teams. Borga actually looked pretty strong even in defeat here and Luger looked strong going over. Pretty good match, and once again, well booked. ** ½

Final Analysis: Like SummerSlam, Survivor Series ’93 isn’t a historically significant show, other than the beginning of the Bret-Owen showdown and perhaps the Undertaker-Yokozuna showdown. The Taker-Yoko feud would be pretty much dead in the water in a couple months and then the pay off wouldn’t happen until the next Survivor Series. Still, it is a well-booked show that doesn’t get a lot of love. I think it was a nice way to end a turbulent 1993.

WWE SummerSlam '93

WWE SummerSlam ‘93

August 30, 1993

The Palace

Auburn Hills, Michigan

I had hoped to review King of the Ring ’93 but due to my living arrangement and priorities elsewhere, that will have to wait, so I’ll be limited for the time being to the shows that I have readily available. King of the Ring was a huge turning point in 1993. Hogan did literally nothing from WrestleMania IX to King of the Ring other than balk at doing the job for Bret Hart at SummerSlam. Instead, Hogan dropped the strap to Yokozuna at King of the Ring. To Hogan’s credit, he put Yokozuna over big and you definitely were left thinking Yokozuna was a big time monster. SummerSlam would be the first show that you got the sense that the Hulkamania era was finally over, because on July 4^th, WWE held a body slam challenge on USS Intrepid in New York. The idea being, that Hogan couldn’t slam Yokozuna, and to play on the Japan vs. USA thing that they were going for, they ran out a bunch of American wrestlers to try to slam the big guy, and all failing… until the re-packaged Lex Luger showed up on a helicopter, came in and slammed the big man. This set off Vince investing a ton of money on the “Lex Express.” Luger would spend July and August criss-crossing America in a bus decked out in red, white, and blue to all the major cities in the country. To this day I don’t think Vince has put in more effort to build his next superstar. This would all culminate at SummerSlam as Yokozuna would defend the title against Lex Luger.

Commentators: Vince McMahon and Bobby “The Brain” Heenan

“Million $ Man” Ted Dibiase vs. Razor Ramon

This would be Dibiase’s final match as injuries had finally caught up to him. Razor had just turned baby face and was beginning to be crazy over so there was no doubt who was winning here. Dibiase did the honors and put Ramon over clean here in a pretty solid match. Razor wins with his razors edge finisher, Dibiase heads off into the sunset, while Razor would be IC Champion not long after this. ** ¼

WWE Tag Team Championship

Steiner Brothers (Rick and Scott) (champions) vs. Heavenly Bodies (Tom Pritchard and Jimmy Del Ray) w/ Jim Cornette

This might be the last really good Steiner Brothers match. WWE had been doing some cross-promotion deals with Smoky Mountain Wrestling, and this was their way of putting SMW over by having Jim Cornette’s Heavenly Bodies in a major title match on the biggest show of the summer. It was a very good match, something that had been lacking in WWE for a long while before this, and we wouldn’t see another one until long after this as Vince started pretty much turning away from tag team wrestling to the point where nowadays it’s non-existent, which is really too bad. Steiners were hitting all of their high impact suplexes here, while the bodies were hitting the classic old school double team moves, and cheating like classic heels. Cornettes heel tactics as a manager outside the ring never really got over with a WWE crowd like it did in the NWA-WCW days, but still entertaining. Just non-stop action, Scotty finally finishes it with the frankensteiner. Wonderful match, that is very much underrated. Doesn’t get enough love. ****

WWE IC Championship

Shawn Michaels (champion) w/ Diesel vs. Mr. Perfect

The WWE pretty much hyped this thing up as being the greatest match of all time. With two of the greatest performers of all time it would be hard not to expect an absolute classic. A classic would have continued the theme of SummerSlam IC title classics (Rude-Warrior, Hart-Perfect, and Hart-Bulldog). For some reason… it just didn’t happen. The timing was off, spots were blown and worst of all, we got a count out finish. It’s kind of odd because Shawn would be suspended for (I guess steroids but we’ve gotten about a dozen different stories from Shawn himself, and others) and Perfects injuries were starting to kick in again and he too wouldn’t be there much longer. The match is still decent enough, but it ranks as one of the most disappointing matches of all time when you consider the performers involved. They just didn’t click. Ending comes with Perfect getting knocked to the outside, and Diesel running him into the ringpost giving Shawn the count-out win and saving the title. ***

IRS vs. 1-2-3 Kid

123 Kid made his name as an underdog jobber who kept getting beat until his real life best buddy Razor Ramon put him over on RAW. Then random baby-faces would taunt Razor with “123 chants” and thus, the Lightning Kid as he was commonly known as in the indies became the 123 Kid. Somehow the whole story evolved in Money Inc. taunting Razor, but then Razor helped the Kid beat Ted Dibiase (setting up their match) and then the natural match up would be IRS vs. the Kid here. IRS was set to get kind of a singles push and feud with Razor, so he gets the win here, but it was a decent little match with the Kid bumping around hard for IRS, but also getting his high-flying offense in which delighted the crowd. Everyone wins here. ** ½

Bret “The Hitman” Hart vs. Jerry “The King” Lawler

This match was set up at King of the Ring. After Bret had won the tournament, Lawler came out and taunted him, and Bret taunted him right back and called him the Burger King. Corny, but clever because Jerry Lawler was a GREAT classic heel that played it off perfectly. Lawler then attacked Bret. Since Bret had nothing else to do after Hogan big leagued him, the program with Lawler was set. But wait! Lawler comes out on crutches and goes into this long hilarious story about some car wreck (all the while insulting Detroit and the Hart family of course). Heenan’s commentary corroborating Lawler’s story combined with McMahon’s outrage is also comedic gold. So the long and the short of it is Lawler can’t wrestle Bret tonight so he will send in his “Court Jester” (again, corny but brilliant) Doink.

Bret Hart vs. Doink

Standard Hart match here, and Doink is still being played by Matt Borne (a good wrestler in his own right). Bret ultimately gets the sharpshooter on, but wait! Lawler comes in and hits Bret with his crutch, revealing of course that he wasn’t hurt at all. So Bret wins by disqualification. Lawler helps Doink to the back, but gets stopped by President Jack Tunney who tells Lawler that since he seems to be fine, he can wrestle, and orders Lawler to go back and face Bret.

Bret Hart vs. Jerry Lawler

Again, more standard Hart stuff here. Lawler gets in his normal Memphis cheap heel tactics in, and gets some token offense, but this is a beat down. Bret is clearly working very stiff with Lawler here apparently getting a little revenge because Lawler injured Bret (according to Bret) during the King of the Ring beat down. Bret finally wins the match with the sharpshooter but doesn’t let it go. You have a bunch of officials and suits coming in pleading with Bret to let go of the hold but he doesn’t. Finally Bret lets go of the hold, but it’s too late, and the ref decides to reverse the decision and disqualify Bret. Lawler does a stretcher job and holds his hand in the air while on the stretcher in a classic dick move. Crowd is just livid over the whole deal. Absolutely fantastic storytelling by two of the greats. This was going to be paid off at Survivor Series where the Hart Brothers were just going to beat the holy hell out of Lawler, but Lawler got himself into a little legal trouble over a rape allegation and the pay-off didn’t really ever happen until two years later at King of the Ring ’95. ****

Marty Jannetty vs. Ludvig Borga

Borga is a Finnish environmentalist and is the new evil foreigner to be the big heel. Basically he was brought in specifically to feud with Lex Luger. Outcome here is definitely not in doubt. Borga pretty much squashes Marty here, as Marty didn’t even get any offense in. Still, I enjoy a good squash, especially if it makes sense. * ¾

Giant Gonzalez w/ Harvey Wippleman vs. Undertaker w/ Paul Bearer

This would be the blow-off match to the epic Undertaker-Gonzalez feud. They “spiced” the feud up by having Harvey’s other guy Mr. Hughes steal the Undertakers urn. We never got an Undertaker-Hughes match (not that I was clamoring for one) as Hughes left the company after King of the Ring. This match is better than their WrestleMania match (how could it not be?) but it is still bad because Gonzalez can literally do nothing. Undertaker wins with a flying clothesline, and then Gonzalez turns baby face by turning on Harvey. I guess the fans are happy here. DUD

6 Man Tag Team Match

Bam Bam Bigelow and Headshrinkers (Samu and Fatu) w/ Luna Vachon and Afa vs. Tatanka and Smoking Gunns (Billy and Bart)

Tatanka and Bam Bam have issues. I want to say Bam Bam cut Tatanka’s hair at one point but I don’t remember. They were just feuding pretty much from WrestleMania until now. I also want to say that this was originally supposed to be Bam Bam vs. Tatanka, but the booking changed, when Sherri left the company. She was set to face Luna here as well. The Gunns and Headshrinkers were directionless at this point as the tag scene shifted from Steiners-Money Inc. to Steiners-Cornette. This is a helluva match though, and again, another match on this card that has largely gone un-noticed. Just nonstop action. My favorite spot of the match is Tatanka is left for dead and Bigelow and the Headshrinkers go up for the triple flying head butt. Tatanka moved out of the way, but it was really telling a great story. Tatanka then rolls up Samu for the win and the delight of the crowd. Another bitchin’ match. *** ¾

Main Event

WWE Championship

Yokozuna (champion) w/ Mr. Fuji and Jim Cornette vs. Lex Luger

Why does Lex Luger get labeled as a choke artist? Here is your answer. So after almost 2 months of nothing but hype, and playing on the USA thing, we come to this match. They even bring out Randy Savage as “master of ceremonies” to introduce Luger. The match is actually pretty good and main event worthy, but the finish is one of the biggest head scratchers in wrestling history. Why would you invest that much time, effort, and money into this and then have him win by… count out? To make matters worse, they have a celebration as if he actually won the title. To this day I just don’t understand this logic at all. It makes absolutely no sense. I’m not a big Lex Luger fan or anything, but this set him up to fail big time the same way it did when Flair would never put him over in either of their big matches in 1988 in the NWA.  Luger would still spend the rest as the top baby face, but never would get that type of attention again and then he would ultimately fail even worse at WrestleMania X. 1993 was just a weird year I guess. ** ¾

Final Analysis: Odd booking in the main even aside, this is a really fun show. It has some pretty good matches but the problem with it is nothing historic happened, nothing that stands the test of time, other than the failure of Lex Luger to win the big one. Even the brilliant Hart-Lawler storyline would have to be placed on hold for things that happened outside of the ring. The show is mainly remembered for Luger’s choke job and the highly disappointing IC title match. Still, it’s a show worth checking out, and you won’t come away disappointed you spent the time watching it.