WWF RAW February 1 1993 Review (Returns & Debuts Galore)

Tomás Cunha
Sep 22, 2022
6 min read

Updated: Apr 25

February 1st, 1993 Live from Manhattan, NY (Manhattan Center) Announced attendance: ca 1 000 (capacity: ca 1 000) TV rating: 3.0 (USA Network) [up 0.4 from the previous RAW’s 2.6]

Thank you for joining me for yet another 1993 RAW review. It’s the fallout from the previous week’s Loser Leaves WWF Match which saw Ric Flair leave the company. Tonight, Brutus Beefcake makes his return to WWF. Doink the Clown and “The Narcissist” Lex Luger both make their televised WWF in-ring debuts as the build towards WrestleMania continues.

Here is the list of WWF champions heading into this week:

WWF Champion: Bret Hart [112th day of his reign] – previous champion: Ric Flair
WWF Intercontinental Champion: Shawn Michaels [97th day of his reign] – previous champion: The British Bulldog
WWF World Tag Team Champions: Money Inc (Ted DiBiase & Irwin R. Schyster) [111th day of their reign] – previous champions: The Natural Disasters (Earthquake & Typhoon)

Note: in title matches, the defending champions are underlined

Enjoy the review!

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Your hosts are Vince McMahon, Randy Savage & Rob Bartlett

– RAW’s intro plays to kick off this week’s show

– We’re going straight to the ring for the first match of the evening

Tatanka vs. Damien Demento

Demento takes control early on, until Tatanka surprises him with a small package for two. Tatanka with a hiptoss, a slam and a clothesline dumps Demento over the top to the floor. Demento stops to talk to the voices in his head (they talk to him, they understand too?) allowing Tatanka to chop away on the outside. That’s pretty dumb if you ask me. Back inside for a few more chops, but Demento takes him down with a clothesline. Back elbow smash by Demento and he follows it up with a legdrop for two. Demento goes to a headlock while the crowd chants “we want Flair”. Tatanka escapes the headlock, marches around the ring as he makes the comeback before finishing with the Not Samoan Drop at 4:10.

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Rating: Extended squash for Tatanka. Basic but not awful. *

– A clip airs of Bret Hart, representing the company as the reigning WWF Champion, presenting a 100.000$ donation check at the “Headlock on Hunger” charity event

Brutus Beefcake returns to the WWF

Vince McMahon joins Beefcake in the ring for an interview. Brutus wants to make his return to action, but Vince wonders if it’ll be a good idea due to the parasailing accident. Brutus explains that it wasn’t just the accident, as shortly before his mother passed away. His dad went right after her, due to a heart attack. And THEN his wife left him for some other guy. She was probably just tired of having Hogan around the house, I honestly can’t blame her. Beefcake continues by saying that then the parasailing accident occurred. He was just about to quit, he was broke, he was destroyed, his jaw had 8 steel plates, 30 screws, 500 stitches but the first thing he saw… was the red and yellow as Hulk Hogan reached his hand and all went well. Oh dear god. His career is in shambles, but Hogan told him “go for it, Brutus” so he’s decided to do so. He kinda had me there at the start, but then it all turned into “Hulk Hogan saved the world” territory and he totally lost me. But hey, Brutus is back to the ring. Yey!…

High Energy (Owen Hart & Koko B. Ware) vs. Iron Mike Sharpe & Von Krus

Well, this one shouldn’t take too long. Sharpe overpowers Owen with a shove off the early lockup. Shoulderblock by Sharpe, but Owen kips up and cuts him off with a dropkick. High Energy with a double-team backdrop to Krus, as then Koko takes care of Iron Mike Sharpe by dropkicking him off the apron. That leaves Von Krus alone, allowing High Energy to finish him with Koko’s missile dropkick straight into Owen’s jackknife roll-up combination for the easy squash at 1:31. Von Krus is the future Big Vito, by the way.

Rating: In ‘n’ out squash. 1/4*

– Recap of Doink taking out Crush last month on Superstars

Typhoon vs. Doink the Clown

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This is Doink’s in-ring debut in the WWF, if you don’t count the already-taped matches on Superstars that only aired later that month. Doink immediately takes Typhoon off his feet with a single-leg takedown. Typhoon sends Doink flying with a huge hiptoss, but Doink manages to take him down yet again, into a front facelock. Typhoon overpowers Doink to escape the hold, only for Doink to wrestle Typhoon down once more as he goes to work on the arm now with a hammerlock. Doink switches into a headlock, but Typhoon rams him into the turnbuckle to block it and puts the clown in a bearhug. Typhoon with a powerslam, only to miss an avalanche in the corner. Doink takes advantage with a flying clothesline and he steals the pin with a handful of tights at 3:10.

Rating: This was there to show that Doink actually knows a thing or two about this wrestling stuff. It wasn’t good or exciting, but it got the point across well enough. 1/2*

– WWF Mania ad followed by a short interview with the show’s host, Todd Pettingill

– 10-bell salute to Andre the Giant, who died the previous week.

– PROMOTIONAL CONSIDERATION PAID FOR BY THE FOLLOWING: Try some IcoPro! How about these WWF Figures! Oh, and don’t forget… snap into a Slim Jim ooooh yeaaah!

Yokozuna vs. Bobby DeVito

Good luck out there, Mr. DeVito. Yokozuna is fresh off winning the Royal Rumble the week before. DeVito charges into a superkick from Yoko right off the bat. Yoko with a belly to belly followed by a legdrop, as we hear from Jim Duggan on the phone. Yeah, good luck to you too, Duggan. Yokozuna destroys the poor jobber a bit more for fun before ending him with the Banzai Drop at 2:38.

Rating: Another squash. Effective way to put Yokozuna over as a pretty big deal on his way to WrestleMania. 1/2*

Interview with Money Inc

Vince asks how does it feel to get into an arena and get such a negative reaction. DiBiase tells him that the only thing that bothers him is an empty bank account, which he never experienced. Hahah! They accept Brutus Beeefcake’s open challenge for his return bout and flip a coin to see who will take on him. However, this draws Jimmy Hart to ringside, who doesn’t exactly agree with the idea since one of them can get hurt and risk the team’s success. The champions tell him not to worry about it, but Jimmy still isn’t into the idea at all.

– Mr. Perfect vignette airs

Main Event

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“The Narcissist” Lex Luger vs. Jason Knight

Yet another debut here as this is Luger’s first match in WWF. Luger takes Jason down with a hiptoss and immediately stops to pose. What, a man has priorities! Luger destroys Knight with a hard clothesline out of the corner and poses some more. Stungun by Luger and more posing. Powerslam by Luger followed by a running clothesline. Luger ends Knight with a forearm and pins him with his pinky at 2:38.

Rating: Basically what I said about all the other matches. 1/4*

Vince closes by saying RAW won’t air next week because The Dog Show will be on. RAW returns in 2 weeks with Brutus Beefcake vs. Ted DiBiase.

END OF THE SHOW

Final thoughts: Well, this was a pretty discreet episode filled with squashes all over the broadcast. I wouldn’t say it was terrible as a number of things happened here, including a return and multiple in-ring debuts, but I wouldn’t exactly recommend this one to anyone, especially compared to the previous episode which had Perfect/Flair. But it’s not like it will make you question your life choices after watching it or anything like that. 4/10

POINT SYSTEM

Find out more about the point system here

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