WWF RAW July 5 1993 Review (Yokozuna Got Slammed!)

Tomás Cunha
Jul 19, 2023
5 min read

July 5, 1993Location: Manhattan, New York, USA (Manhattan Center)Announced attendance: N/ATV rating: 2.9 (USA Network) [same as the previous week’s rating]

Hello everyone. Welcome to my review of another episode of Monday Night RAW. The main focus of this week’s episode is the recap of last night’s Stars & Stripes Challenge, which was highly promoted ever since Yokozuna became the WWF Champion. The 1-2-3 Kid will also be wrestling this week, along with Bam Bam Bigelow, Mr. Perfect, and the returning The Undertaker!

Here is the list of champions in the WWF heading into this RAW:

WWF Champion: Yokozuna [22nd day of his 2nd reign] – previous champion: Hulk Hogan
WWF Intercontinental Champion: Shawn Michaels [29th day of his 2nd reign] – previous champion: Marty Jannetty
WWF World Tag Team Champions: The Steiner Brothers (Rick & Scott Steiner) [16th day of their 2nd reign] – previous champions: Money Inc. (Ted DiBiase & Irwin R. Schyster)

Note: in title matches, the defending champions appear underlined

Enjoy the review!

Your hosts are Vince McMahon, Bobby Heenan & Randy Savage

RAW’s intro plays and we go straight to a clip from yesterday’s Stars & Stripes Challenge. Here is a list of all the athletes that tried and failed to slam Yokozuna – Lee Rouson of the New York Giants, Bob Backlund, Peter Taglianetti of the Pittsburgh Penguins, Scott Burrell of the Charlotte Hornets (who didn’t even try to do it), Scott Steiner, Tatanka, Bill Fralic of the Detroit Lions, Crush (who did pick Yoko up), and Randy Savage. Yokozuna had dethroned everyone, until one last competitor arrived on a helicopter…

Lex Luger made his way to the ring and even shoved Bobby Heenan to signify his face turn. Luger challenged Yokozuna on the microphone, dumped Mr. Fuji, ducked a charge by Yoko who ate the turnbuckle, nailed him with the deadly forearm of doom, and slammed Yokozuna as the crowd went absolutely wild.

When we come back to the live broadcast, McMahon announces the new American hero Lex ‘Narcissist No More’ Luger has officially issued a challenge to Yokozuna for a future WWF Championship match.

The 1-2-3 Kid vs. Blake Beverly This is Kid’s first showcase bout after the matches with Razor. Beverly bitchslaps Kid after being offered a handshake, but Kid comes back with a dropkick that dumps Beverly. Kid meets him outside with a baseball slide, and dropkicks him back inside for two. Enziguiri gets two and Kid goes for another aerial move, but Beverly scoop slams him for two. Beverly is thinking suplex, only to change his mind and suplex Kid onto the turnbuckle, which knocks Kid all the way to the floor. Beverly takes his time hitting Kid around ringside, before taking him back inside for a headbutt. Beverly then picks up Kid and press slams him to the floor like he was garbage. Back in, Blake with a backbreaker followed by a running powerslam, but he breaks up the count. Kid tries to come back with a springboard crossbody, but Beverly ducks and clotheslines him. Beverly follows it up with a Warrior-like running shoulderblock that knocks Kid to the floor. Beverly goes up top but eats the floor after Kid ducks, and Kid goes up himself and comes down with a flying spinkick. Beverly catches Kid going for a leapfrog and turns it into a backdrop suplex, but Kid ducks a flying splash before going up top to finish Beverly with a flying legdrop to the back of the head at 8:00.

Rating: Where did this come from!? This is the first time Blake appears on RAW since the end of The Beverly Brothers (when Beau left) and I certainly didn’t expect him to bring it to The Kid like he did here. Kid sold the beating like a champ and made his second win feel like a big deal, but Beverly looked like a million dollars as the ‘bully’ heel during the heat spot. The Kid got even more over, while Blake looked better than he ever did in the Beverly Brothers. ***

A rap video airs telling us Men on a Mission are coming to the WWF soon.

Luna Vachon says we’re about to see the Beast From The East.

Bam Bam Bigelow vs. Joey Maggs

Bigelow absolutely destroys this poor guy with a shoulderblock followed by two running Avalanches in the corner for the very easy win in 0:40.

Rating: Short, sweet and to the point. 1/4*

A video plays promoting All American Wrestling featuring Bobby Heenan and Mean Gene.

The Undertaker vs. Samu (w/ Afa)

This is Undertaker’s return after the attack from Giant Gonzalez and Mr. Hughes right before King of the Ring. Paul Bearer is still absent. Samu takes it to Undertaker to start, but they mess up a leapfrog start and Samu ends up headbutting UT’s balls. Taker immediately gets back up and continues the match, but that had to hurt. UT takes Samu down with a drop toehold and dropkicks him, while Samu keeps running away. Afa offers some advice in the form of a headbutt, which seems to motivate his man. UT strikes with Old School on his way back inside the ring, but Samu ducks UT’s jumping clothesline and superkicks him outside. Afa adds some shots as we take a break.

Commercial break

We come back with Samu throwing UT into the steps. Samu catches Taker with a scoop slam for two, but UT does the zombie situp. Samu dumps him over the top to the floor, only for UT to land on his feet and get back in. UT rams Samu’s head into the ring post and drops an elbow on him, but Samu moves out of the way of a second one. Samu hits a sidewalk slam and a headbutt, and Taker fails to complete the zombie situp. Samu goes up and comes down with a diving headbutt. Samu bitchslaps him a couple of times to see if he’s still in it, and goes back up when UT doesn’t react. However, UT avoids the second diving headbutt by doing the zombie situp, and puts Samu away with the Chokeslam-Tombstone combo at 9:00.

Rating: It’s always fun to see The Undertaker wrestle on television, which is pretty rare. In fact, this was his first televised match since WrestleMania 9, outside of a 1-minute squash on Superstars. The match was pretty solid, with Undertaker having to prove himself without Paul Bearer and the urn. Nice match. **1/2

Yokozuna & Mr. Fuji come out to address the “loss” to Lex Luger last night. Fuji refuses to accept the defeat as it was a hip lock and not a slam, and thus won’t grant him a title shot. McMahon asks who he’ll be defending against, with Fuji saying he’ll take on anyone one by one. Crush interrupts them, puts Luger over and offers to be the first in line for a title shot next week. McMahon ignores Fuji and asks Yokozuna himself, who accepts and sets up a WWF Championship match for next week.

Main Event

Mr. Perfect vs. Brian Costello

Perfect dropkicks Costello to the floor off a criss-cross sequence. He chops Costello on the outside, brings him back in for some more chops and NOW YOU’RE GONNA A PERFECTPLEX at 1:00.

Rating: Another very short squash that did its job. 1/4*

We go off the air with a shot of Lex Luger’s slam to Yokozuna.

END OF THE SHOW

Final thoughts: Very good episode of RAW. The 1-2-3 Kid had another impressive victory, The Undertaker made a triumphant return and won a match on his own. Additionally, a World Title match was arranged for the following week. The short matches were also kept short and effective. 7/10