WWF RAW March 1 1993 Review (WWF Title Is On The Line)

March 1^st, 1993
Location: Manhattan, New York, USA (Manhattan Center)
Announced attendance: ca 1 000 (capacity: ca 1 000)
TV rating: 2.9 (USA Network) [down 0.1 from the previous RAW’s 3.0]

Greetings everyone. Welcome to another RAW review. This week, Bret Hart puts the WWF Championship on the line against The Headshrinkers’ Fatu. Plus, Money Inc respond to Hulk Hogan’s challenge last week.

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

• WWF Champion: Bret Hart [140^th day of his reign] – previous champion: Ric Flair
• WWF Intercontinental Champion: Shawn Michaels [125^th day of his reign] – previous champion: The British Bulldog
• WWF World Tag Team Champions: Money Inc (Ted DiBiase & Irwin R. Schyster) [139^th day of their reign] – previous champions: The Natural Disasters (Earthquake & Typhoon)

Note: in title matches, the defending champions are underlined

Enjoy the review!

Your hosts are Vince McMahon, Randy Savage & Rob Bartlett

No intro this week. Instead, we go straight to the first match.

I’ll choose to ignore Bartlett’s “hilarious” Elvis Presley impersonation and not give him any attention at all from here. I can’t wait for him to be gone.

WWF Championship – Bret Hart vs. Fatu (w/ Afa)

Fatu no-sells a shoulderblock to start and powerslams Bret, but misses an elbowdrop and Bret armdrags him and goes to an armbar. Fatu escapes the hold and charges, but misses as his arm hits the turnbuckle. That allows Bret to go back to the armbar, which Fatu escapes with a handful of hair. Shoulderblock by Bret does nothing, but a third one finally knocks the big man down. Bret plays possum by faking a trip on Fatu on a criss-cross sequence, allowing him to nearly steal it with a small package. Vince said Afa tripped Bret, totally missing the point of the spot and ruining it. AFA WAS ON THE OTHER SIDE OF THE RING!!! Armbar by Bret. Fatu tries to block it with a powerslam, but Bret holds on to the arm and rolls through while the armdrag is still locked in! Fatu misses a clothesline, Bret blocks a telegraphed backdrop with a faceplant on Fatu, who pops right back up with a superkick for a nearfall. That was awesome! Rule #1 in wrestling: never go after a Samoan’s head. That’s just science, Bret! Bret blocks a hiptoss into one of his own, but Fatu also blocks Bret’s and nails a clothesline for two. Fatu goes to the HIGHLY UNCOMFORTABLE SAMOAN NERVE HOLD OF DEATH before hitting a back elbow smash for two. Fatu’s partner Samu walks down to ringside just as Bret gets a crossbody for two. The kickout sends Bret into the outside, though, where he’s met with a powerslam on the floor by Samu as we take a break.

Commercial break

Fatu hammers away on Bret back inside the ring when we return. Fatu whips Bret into the buckle, with Bret obviously taking his classic corner bump. Fatu follows it up with a backbreaker for two. Bret gets another trip into the turnbuckle, and Fatu comes down with a series of headbutts for two. Sitout piledriver by Fatu gets a close nearfall. Bret gets a busted nose, so Fatu goes ahead and bites it… ugh! Bret takes a third bump in the turnbuckle, this one chest-first as the whole ring shakes. Fatu gets two from that. Sideslam by Fatu sets up a flying headbutt for two. However, Fatu decides to go up for another one instead of covering, giving Bret enough time to get back to his feet and crotch Fatu on the top rope. Superplex by Hitman gets a very close two count. Running bulldog for two more. Backbreaker into the middle rope elbowdrop set up the Sharpshooter, but Afa gets up on the apron to distract the referee, allowing Samu to break the hold and trade places with Fatu. SAMOAN TWIN MAGIC BY GAWD! Samu gets two before Fatu comes back in the match, but Bret rams Fatu into Samu and takes care of Afa as well with a dropkick that knocks him off the apron. That finally leaves Bret alone in the ring with Fatu. Russian legsweep by Bret, who goes back to the Sharpshooter for the submission win at 15:30 to retain the title and guarantee his spot as defending champion at WrestleMania.

• Rating: Pretty good for the first ever World Title match in RAW history. Despite the funny gimmicks over the years, Fatu (Rikishi) is certainly able to have a good match, and a highly motivated Bret Hart is more than the right opponent to give him one. Fatu looked vicious during the heat spot with Bret selling his stuff really well, the action was good and the ending was exciting. This was a pretty fun TV match. ***1/4

WM 9 was nearly main evented by a family clash for the World title. Bret Hart screwed the Anoa’is! Someone better not tell Roman Reigns!

WrestleMania IX Report w/ Mean Gene

• Money Inc vs. The Mega Maniacs for the tag team titles is officially added to the WrestleMania card.
• There are still tickets available!
• A rundown of the announced matches so far:
  • The Undertaker vs. Giant Gonzalez
  • Shawn Michaels vs. Tatanka for the IC Title
  • Mr. Perfect vs. Lex Luger
  • Main event: Bret vs Yokozuna for the WWF Title
• Mean Gene digs Randy Savage’s attire tonight!

Meanwhile, Crush gives us a preview of what he’ll do to Doink at WrestleMania… by crushing a coconut on the beach. Isn’t wrestling clever sometimes!?

Doink the Clown vs. Koko B. Ware

High Energy is no more, so it’s back to jobber purgatory for poor Koko. He’d be gone after this match, in fact. Doink jumps Koko during his entrance and goes after the leg to start. Single leg crab into an STF by Doink, who proceeds to punish the leg some more. Swinging neckbreaker sets up the Stump Puller at 1:48.

• Rating: Not every day that you see a minute-long squash with actual psychology. *

After the match, “Elvis” joins Doink at ringside for an interview, but he wants some food first. He ends up getting a pie thrown in his face for his troubles.

Money Inc. interview

Vince McMahon is in the ring for a chat with the champs. Firstly, DiBiase can’t believe his good friend James Robinson (former American Express CEO) will only be making 10M$ a year in his retirement. That number ALREADY INCLUDES BONUSES too!! What kind of injustice is this. Anyway, DiBiase couldn’t help but get touched by Hulk Hogan’s return last week. Hogan and Beefcake took Jimmy Hart from Money Inc. because they know they’re soft since they’ve both been inactive for a long time during the last couple of years, and they need an edge. They actually did Money Inc. a favor, though, as Jimmy did nothing but what he got told to do. Plus, he was overpaid! Sheesh, good riddance! IRS claims all he did with the briefcase to Beefcake was give him a wake-up call; and if they did it to Brutus, what will stop them from doing it to Hulk? IRS shows off a picture of Hogan on the “BEEFCASE”. His words! Vince wants to know if they’ll put the belts on the line, and DiBiase agrees to do so at WrestleMania. IRS closes by announcing the odds in Las Vegas are against the Mega Maniacs.

The Narcissist Lex Luger vs. PJ Walker

But first, Luger with some posing by the mirror outside the ring. PJ Walker is the future Justin Credible. Luger whips Walker from one corner to another and hits a backbreaker. Meanwhile, Bobby Heenan joins us on commentary via phone call to join in on the “comedy” with Bartlett. How about cutting this crap and simply putting Heenan on commentary? Anyway, Luger powerslams Walker onto the turnbuckle and adds some flexing, before finishing Walker with the FOREARM SMASH OF MYSTERIOUS DOOM at 3:16.

• Rating: Not much into this one. There was little action in the ring and the commentary was beyond atrocious. 1/4*

Luger humiliates Walker afterwards and flexes in front of the mirror.

Main Event

The Steiner Brothers (Rick & Scott Steiner) vs. Duane Gill & Barry Hardy

Vince lets us know that the Steiners will face the Headshrinkers at WrestleMania. Scott takes control over Hardy early on and hits an overhead suplex. Rick dumps Hardy with a clothesline, and Scott gently puts him back inside. Rick powerslams him into the buckle and destroys poor Gillberg with a backdrop into a tilt-a-whirl backbreaker. Rick drops an elbow and brings in Scott for a pumphandle slam. A dropkick gets rid of Gill, as then Scott hits the tiger diver into the Frankensteiner to finish Barry at 4:06.

• Rating: Your usual energetic Steiners squash. 3/4*

A WWF Mania ad airs. Don’t forget… it’s 100% caffeine free!

Next week: Money Inc. vs. Tito & Virgil and Perfect vs. Martel.

We close the episode with no mention of the ending of the Undertaker/Skinner match from last week. Maybe Undertaker will come out of retirement to take care of this unfinished business. Saudi prince, if you’re reading… there’s your next headliner!

END OF THE SHOW

Final thoughts: The WWF title match is by far the highlight of this episode, unsurprisingly. Outside of that, the squashes weren’t bad, with Luger’s being the weaker one due to all the Elvis Presley bullsh!t on commentary. Money Inc.’s promo wasn’t bad, but it was basically only confirming the inevitable tag title match at WM. When it comes to actual build-up towards WrestleMania, this did nothing of note to build to that show. Needless to say, Rob Bartlett made this episode unbearable at times with his godawful Elvis impersonation that lasted THE ENTIRE SHOW. Overall, this RAW was fine in and of itself, but had zero build towards the upcoming WM 9, which is only their biggest event of the year. Give the title match a watch, though. 5/10

POINT SYSTEM

Find out more about the point system here

That’s all for this week’s episode. See you next time, everyone!

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