June 14 1993 Taped show (on June 7 1993)
Location: Manhatten, New York, USA (Manhatten Center)
Announced attendance: N/A
TV rating: 2.8 (USA Network) [up 11.3% from the previous week’s 2.5 rating]
Welcome everyone to yet another WWF RAW review here on the blog. We have a brand new WWF Champion this week and a new King of the Ring was crowned. If you missed the review of the prior night’s PPV, make sure you catch up here. Mega heel Jerry Lawler is in action following his actions at the end of last night’s PPV, the former IC Champion Marty Jannetty faces Doink the Clown, and Owen Hart is back in action. This show was actually taped BEFORE King of the Ring, so it’ll be interesting to see what they do here.
Here is the list of champions heading into RAW: considering air date (6/14)
- WWF Champion: Yokozuna [2nd day of his 2nd reign] – previous champion: Hulk Hogan
- WWF Intercontinental Champion: Shawn Michaels [8th day of his 2nd reign] – previous champion: Marty Jannetty
- WWF World Tag Team Champions: Money Inc. (Ted DiBiase & Irwin R. Schyster) [244th day of their 2nd reign] – previous champions: The Natural Disasters (Earthquake & Typhoon)
Note: in title matches, the defending champions appear underlined
Enjoy the review!
Your hosts are Vince McMahon, Bobby Heenan & Randy Savage
RAW kicks off this week with a recap of Yokozuna winning the WWF Title. In an interview done after the show, Mr. Fuji tells Mean Gene their celebration will be on July 4 in the USS Intrepid. I had a hard time understanding what Fuji said in this promo. It’s no surprise Vince hired Jim Cornette to do the talking for them soon afterwards.
[Show intro plays]
Mr. Perfect vs. LA Gore
Perfect with a headlock to start. Dropkick by Perfect off a criss-cross sequence and Gore bails. Back in, Perfect unloads in the corner with some chops. Perfect necksnap, kneelift and finally the Perfectplex for the easy win at 2:46.
- Rating: Perfect did a handful of his moves and went over. 1/4*
Vince McMahon interviews Razor Ramon
Razor comes out with a bag in his hands. He offers The 1-2-3 Kid $10,000 just to get back in the ring with Ramon. Let’s see if Kid accepts it this time around!
Doink the Clown vs. Marty Jannetty
Doink comes down to the ring with a Pepsi in his hands and goes under the ring. He magically comes back in with a jacket on (which he didn’t have), and squirts Vince.
They start by getting into a slugfest outside before Jannetty could even finish his entrance. Inside the ring, Jannetty hits a bulldog off the top rope for two. Marty works an armbar but Doink grabs a handful of hair and hits a cheap forearm to break. Shoulderblock dumps Jannetty to the outside. Doink rams Marty’s head into the post while he’s on the apron, but Marty slides between Doink’s legs to get back in the ring. Marty blocks a dropkick for two and goes back to work on the arm.
Commercial break
We come back with a Jannetty leapfrog followed by a dropkick, who goes back to the arm. Flying crossbody by Marty gets two. Doink catches a charging Jannetty with a scoop powerslam for two. Backdrop suplex as Doink controls things on the mat. Powerslam by Doink sets up a flying buttdrop splash off the top rope for two. Neckbreaker gets two. Doink keeps laughing in between moves. He back up top, only to slip which allows Jannetty to slam him off. Jannetty makes the comeback with a jumping back elbow, a dropkick and a suplex for two. Clothesline gets two more. Jannetty faceplants him for two and then both men slam each other to the outside. Slugfest and Jannetty hits a superkick, but they eventually get double counted-out at 8:40. Jannetty continues the beating with a hurricanrana until they get separated by officials.
- Rating: Pretty good for a random RAW match. Jannetty has really been on a roll since returning last month, and Doink continues to develop his gimmick. The no-contest was cheap but the post-match left me wanting to see more. ***
Owen Hart vs. Dan Dubiel
The returning Owen is still sporting the High Energy outfit, which still looks stupid. Dubiel hides on the ropes to avoid Owen’s initial flurry. The jobber shoves Owen, who slaps him in return and goes to work on the arm. Meanwhile, we have The 1-2-3 Kid on the line from Japan. He was actually working a tour in Japan at the time of this show. Vince mentions Razor Ramon’s offer from earlier tonight, and The Kid actually accepts it. Back to the match, Owen with a missile dropkick and a bridge suplex for the win at 3:49.
- Rating: The wrestling was decent in this one, but make no mistake about it, the match was purely visual background for the angle with The 1-2-3 Kid. 1/4*
We see a long recap of Mr. Hughes stealing Paul Bearer’s urn at last weekend’s WWF Superstars of Wrestling, as well as Giant Gonzalez attacking The Undertaker simultaneously.
Main Event
Jerry Lawler vs. Mark Thomas
Lawler comes out with black and pink gear, which is pretty hilarious. He actually looks like a smaller Jim Neidhart in this attire due to the hairy chest. Lawler cuts a promo on the fans about the Burger King chants, which makes it even louder and causes Bobby Heenan to leave the announce table! Lawler pounds away on Thomas to start and plants him with a DDT. He stops to mock the fans, who are incredibly loud. Lawler misses a fistdrop, but turns things around easily with a backdrop. Lawler keeps turning his attention to the fans, allowing Mark Thomas to backdrop him. He tries a second one, Lawler ducks and kills him with the Piledriver. Lawler drops an arrogant fistdrop on the already finished Thomas before pinning him at 3:51.
- Rating: Such a fun squash with loads of heat. Lawler was incredibly over, and he deserves extra credit since this was before the angle with Bret Hart (remember this was taped before the PPV), which shows how great he is. 3/4*
Meanwhile, next week’s RAW live from Poughkeepsie features the much anticipated rematch between Razor Ramon and The 1-2-3 Kid, and also Marty Jannetty vs. Doink in a 2 out of 3 falls match.
END OF THE SHOW
Final thoughts: I thought they did a pretty good job to follow up on last night’s PPV… without actually doing it! I had very low expectations for a RAW taped before the PPV, but the squashes were mostly very fun, they finally announced the Razor/Kid rematch, and there was a good match in Jannetty vs. Doink to boot. This couldn’t have been any better given the obvious limitations. Great job by the WWF! 6/10
POINT SYSTEM
Read more about the point system
Thank you all for reading. Don’t miss the next review on the blog, which will be WCW Clash of the Champions #23 featuring Ric Flair’s return to the ring. See you next time!
