WWF RAW April 26 1993 Review (An Uncensored & Uncooked Proposal!)

April 26, 1993
Location: Manhattan, New York, USA (Manhattan Center)
Announced attendance: ca 1 000
TV rating: 3.2 (USA Network) [up 10.34% from the previous week’s 2.9]

Welcome to another RAW review. You can catch up all the previous weeks here if you’ve missed any. This week, Lex Luger faces Crush, Mr. Perfect battles Damien Demento, Typhoon is in action and Mr. Hughes makes his WWF debut.

Here is the list of champions in WWF heading into this week’s episode:

• WWF Champion: Hulk Hogan [22^nd day of his 5^th reign] – previous champion: Yokozuna
• WWF Intercontinental Champion: Shawn Michaels [181^st day of his 1^st reign] – previous champion: The British Bulldog
• WWF World Tag Team Champions: Money Inc. (Ted DiBiase & Irwin R. Schyster) [195^th day of their 2^nd reign] – previous champions: The Natural Disasters (Earthquake & Typhoon)

Note: in title matches, the defending champions’ names appear underlined

Enjoy the review!

Your hosts are Vince McMahon, Bobby Heenan & Randy Savage

First and foremost… NO MORE ROB BARTLETT!!!

You tell ’em, Snoop!

The show’s intro kick us off tonight, and an excited Vince McMahon welcomes us to Mooooooonday Night RAAAAAAAAAWW! The Manhattan Center crowd immediately greets Heenan with the “weasel” chants, so you can tell they were dying to have him on the show as well.

Mr. Perfect vs. Damien Demento

Lockup to start, leapfrog by Perfect into a dropkick and Demento bails immediately. He stops to ask the fans in the front row if they hear the voices as well. Thankfully a young Randy Orton wasn’t in attendance. Back in, Demento with a back elbow shot and he takes over with the CLUBBING BLOWS. You know they mean business when the clubbing blows are unleashed. Demento rams Perfect to the floor, with Perfect landing on the cameraman and taking him out. Demento whips Perfect into the buckle back inside, with Perfect selling his previously injured back like a madman. Only Mr. Perfect could even attempt to get something half decent out of Damien Demento. Perfect finally turns things around with a series of chops. Perfect with the kneelift and the Perfect necksnap, but Demento cuts him off with an elbow to the gut. Demento goes for a running splash but only finds Perfect’s knees, and NOW YOU’RE GONNA SEE A PERFECTPLEX at 4:56.

• Rating: Holy cow this was a lot better than I expected. Sure, it’s Damien Demento so the bar is as low as it can get, but Perfect made the most of what he got and allowed Demento to shine a bit as well. The best Damien Demento match you’ll ever find anywhere. *3/4

We hear an essay from a young child titled “there’s no hope with dope”. The Undertaker pops up and repeats the title after her, which was pretty cool. Don’t do drugs, kids.

The Narcissist Lex Luger vs. Crush

They show the x-ray that Jack Tunney forced Luger to do on his forearm. There’s an exaggerated metal plate due to his motorcicle accident, but Vince says there’s nothing the WWF can do about it. They start with a hard lockup and Crush shoves Luger. Flexy Lexy shows off his big guns and asks for a test of strength. Crush kicks him in the midsection during the test of strength to take the advantage, follows it up with a gorilla press slam and Luger bails. The announcers mention someone in the crowd will propose to his girlfriend later tonight. Anyway, Luger slugs away back inside and takes control, but Crush leapfrogs and dropkicks Luger as we go to break.

Commercial break

We’re back with Crush blocking a hiptoss attempt by Luger, and turning it into a belly to belly for two. Crush misses a blind charge in the corner and Luger dumps Crush with a Macho Man high knee to the back. Luger follows Crush to the outside and slams Crush’s back into the post. Back in the ring, Luger goes to work on the back. Crush escapes a bearhug by slapping the ears, but gets caught by Luger with a powerslam for two. Luger tries a suplex, blocked by Crush who hits one himself instead. A backdrop suplex from Crush ends up hurting Crush’s injured back as much as Luger. Crush remains on top regardless with a slam into a legdrop for two. That sets up the HEADSQUEEZER OF DEATH and Luger’s in trouble. However, Crush spots Doink the Clown and releases the hold. Doink points to other side of the arena, where there’s a second Doink much like at WrestleMania. This distracts Crush even further, allowing Luger to knock Crush out with the LOADED FOREARM OF UNFAIR DOOM from behind, sending Crush all the way to the floor. Luger gets the count-out win at 13:00.

• Rating: I was expecting a short match with some kind of dumb Doink-related finish, and while the second part was a given, the match itself was actually quite decent. Miles better than any match Crush had been in since his 1992 repackage, and while Luger used to have much better matches in WCW, he looked pretty good here. **1/2

They play on ad for the King of the Ring PPV, coming up on June 13.

Vince announces the first two qualifying matches for the KOTR tournament coming up later that week: Mr. Perfect vs. Doink on WWF Superstars, and Lex Luger vs. Bob Backlund on WWF Wrestling Challenge during the weekend.

WWF figures ad.

Mr. Hughes vs. Jason Knight

This is Hughes’ WWF debut after a forgettable WCW run in 1990-92. Hughes with a powerslam to start. Meanwhile, Heenan is so into this match that he’s shown zapping through the TV channels on commentary. Hughes finishes with sort of a modified Chokeslam at 2:07.

• Rating: Just a regular squash. For a debut, it was far from impressive. 1/4*

The Smoking Gunns are coming to the WWF soon.

Vince McMahon interviews Shawn Michaels

Vince wants to know how Shawn feels knowing he’ll not only have to defend the Intercontinental Championship against Mr. Perfect in the future, but he’ll also put it on the line next week on RAW against Hacksaw Jim Duggan. Shawn starts by saying he’s tired of coming to New York for RAW every week, and calls NYC the armpit of the USA. Michaels tries to continue the promo, but the crowd showers Shawn with a HUGE “Shawn is gay” chant. Heenan joins in on the chant, thinking the crowd is saying “Shawn is great”! Heenan is the man. Michaels addresses attacking Perfect backstage at WM 9, and that’s Perfect’s cue to come down to ringside. Big “Perfect” chant for him. Shawn cheapshots him while he’s entering the ring, then proceeds to get the hell outta town and Perfect chases him all the way to the back. Pretty good segment to set up their future title match.

Recap of last week’s WWF Superstars, with Bam Bam manhandling Sensational Sherri in the interview platform, only for Tatanka to come out for the save. Later in the broadcast, Tatanka didn’t show up for his scheduled match as Bam Bam beat him up backstage. Bigelow cut some of Tatanka’s hair in the end. Nice to see that the legacy of Brutus Beefcake lives on.

Main Event

Typhoon vs. Von Krus

Von Krus slugs away for a while to start, but Typhoon quickly turns it around with a backdrop and a clothesline. Meanwhile, Jim Duggan joins us live via phone call and hypes up his IC Title shot next week. Heenan wishes Duggan was here or he’d tear him apart! Savage: “well he’ll be here next week”, quickly putting Heenan in his place! Needless to say, Heenan was missed. Oh, there’s still a match in the ring, I forgot. Typhoon clotheslines Von Krus and splashes him for the win at 2:37.

• Rating: Just filler. 1/4*

Bobby Heenan immediately jumps up for the final segment as soon as the bell rings. Heenan finds the couple who will get engaged tonight, and asks the man what his name is. “Paul Sosnowski”, Heenan: “one at a time”. LMAO. The guy proposes and Heenan instantly mocks the couple, and the guy is just dying with laughter while the girl is nearly crying. Heenan asks them to do the actual marriage on RAW also!

We go to a final break, see a Macho Man Slim Jim commercial and Vince promotes next week’s event: Shawn/Duggan for the IC Title, and Kamala is in action.

We’re back with Heenan continuing the ceremony. He knocks them one last time because of the wedding ring, and promises the wedding will happen on RAW again, which leaves the couple all worked up! This was fantastic.

END OF THE SHOW

Final thoughts: I thought this was a pretty good RAW frankly, after so many of weeks of nothing episodes. I was surprised by how decent both Perfect/Demento and Luger/Crush were, Shawn Michaels’ interview and eventual confrontation with Perfect was really good, and Bobby Heenan put the icing on the cake with that final segment. At just 45 minutes, this was a really easy watch and a very enjoyable RAW, even with the final two matches which which were “just there”. Also, shoutout to the couple who have a moment they will remember forever. Wherever you are (hopefully still together), you guys rule! 7/10

POINT SYSTEM

That’s all from me today. Don’t miss any RAW review here on the blog, as well as the upcoming PPVs: WCW’s Slamboree in May, and WWF’s King of the Ring in June. Also, download our web-app for a quick and easier access to the site, which you can find in the link bar on top of the page. See you all next time!

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