WWF RAW October 25 1993 Review (Jannetty Vs. Kid)

Tomás Cunha
Nov 3, 2024
6 min read

Updated: 6 days ago

October 25, 1993 Taped show (on October 18, 1993) Location: Poughkeepsie, New York, USA (Mid-Hudson Civic Center) Announced attendance: unknown TV rating: 2.6 [down 13.3% from the previous week’s 3.0 rating]

Hello everyone. Welcome to one more RAW review here on the site. One week after a strong episode headlined by the confrontation between Randy Savage and Crush that ended with the latter’s heel turn, Crush will be in action. Marty Jannetty will face The 1-2-3 Kid in this week’s featured match. Plus, Ludvig Borga, Men on a Mission and Diesel will be in action.

Here is the list of WWF champions heading into this episode: lengths of title reigns based on air dates

WWF Champion: Yokozuna [134th day of his 2nd reign] – previous champion: Hulk Hogan
WWF Intercontinental Champion: Razor Ramon [14th day of his 1st reign] – previous champion: Shawn Michaels, before it was vacated
WWF Tag Team Champions: The Quebecers (Jacques & Pierre) [42nd day of their 1st reign as a team; Jacques’ 1st individual reign & Pierre’s 1st individual reign] – previous champions: The Steiners (Rick & Scott Steiner)

Note: in title matches, the defending champions are underlined

Enjoy the review!

Your hosts are Vince McMahon & Bobby Heenan

The show starts with a recap of last week’s Savage/Crush summit featuring Crush’s heel turn.

Crush (w/ Mr. Fuji) vs. Phil Apollo

This is Crush’s first match on RAW as a heel. He now wears face paint as well as black, purple and grey attire. Crush easily dominates Apollo, hitting a weird superkick followed by an even worse spinkick. He follows it up with a big clothesline and a legdrop. Stick to moves like that, please! The slow beating continues and Crush hits a gorilla press slam. The head squeezer of doom gets the job done in 2:49 via submission.

Winner: Crush

Rating: Basic squash to establish Crush as a heel. It was effective, even with those poor kicks. 1/4*

Meanwhile, Johnny Polo claims he could beat both Marty Jannetty and The 1-2-3 Kid with his hands tied behind his back despite being a manager.

Marty Jannetty vs. The 1-2-3 Kid

Rare babyface vs. babyface match. Jannetty and The Kid are scheduled to be partners at the Survivor Series, and this should be a pretty good friendly bout. They take their time and feel each other out to start. Both men fight over a wristlock until Jannetty flips his way out of the hold. The Kid does the same to prove a point. Jannetty with a hiptoss, The Kid kicks him off, they both kip up and we get a stalemate. The crowd is into it. Kid nearly steals it with a victory roll. Great selljob by Jannetty, who takes his time getting back up. The Kid gets another nearfall by catching Marty with a quick spinkick. Jannetty blocks a hurricanrana attempt with a powerbomb for two. Johnny Polo appears at ringside right before we take a break.

Commercial break

We come back with Johnny Polo tripping Jannetty allowing The Kid to get a two count. The Kid takes advantage of the distraction and takes it to Jannetty. Swanton Bomb misses after Jannetty moves out of the way. Marty covers The Kid and gets two. Faceplant by Jannetty gets two. Polo interferes yet again, this time tripping The Kid. Marty covers The Kid for two. Jannetty asks the referee to get rid of Polo, but The Kid jumps him from behind with a roll-up for two. Jannetty doesn’t appreciate that move, getting more aggressive afterward. Marty outwrestles The Kid on the mat into a pinning position for two. Jannetty gets two with a suplex. He tries a second suplex, which The Kid blocks before hitting a bridge German Suplex for two. We get a ref bump after Kid accidentally whips Marty into the ref, and Kid knocks Marty to the outside with a spinkick. The Kid goes for a somersault plancha but Polo shoves Jannetty into the post, causing both men to get counted out at 13:00.

Result: Draw (double CO)

Rating: Good action between two of the most exciting WWF wrestlers at the time. Johnny Polo was brought in to add more intensity to their bout, and played a big part in the finish. I liked what I saw, and it left me wanting more. ***

Johnny Polo laughs about the result afterward, only to get beat up by both Kid and Jannetty.

Jeff Jarrett is back with another vignette.

Ludvig Borga vs. Mike Bucci

Borga jumps Bucci before the bell even rings. Borga hits a double-hand chokeslam while the announcers promote the battle of the undefeated streaks (Borga vs. Tatanka) coming up later in the week on Superstars. Borga hits a slam followed by an elbowdrop. Sideslam by Borga. He takes a lot of time talking trash before delivering a running clothesline to Bucci. Borga uses Lex Luger’s Torture Rack to pick up the win at 3:45.

Winner: Ludvig Borga

Rating: This wasn’t horrible but it wasn’t a great squash either. 1/4*

Bobby Heenan interviews Ludvig Borga at ringside afterward. Borga claims he’ll end Tatanka’s impressive undefeated streak much like he’s going to end the American Dream. Not sure about that last part, but he did end Tatanka’s streak on Superstars:

Men on a Mission (Mabel & Mo) (w/ Oscar) vs. Todd Mata & Steve Greenman

Greenman shoves Mo and does a big celebration. Naturally, Mo destroys him easily and stops to celebrate as well. Tag to Mabel who comes in with a big clothesline to Greenman. The announcers say Men on a Mission will get a WWF Tag Team Title shot against The Quebecers on Wrestling Challenge. Mabel & Mo deliver a double-team dropkick to Greenman, who tags in his partner. Mabel overpowers Todd Mata in short order. Double-team elbowdrop by Men on a Mission as Mo gets back inside the ring. Drop toehold by Mo right into an elbowdrop by Mabel. MoM continue to exchange quick tags and Mabel squashes poor Mata with a clothesline in the corner. Mabel puts Mata away with a clothesline in 5:33.

Winners: Men on a Mission

Rating: This was actually a lot more entertaining than I expected, although it went a bit longer than it needed. Still, this was fun and The Men on a Mission looked good as a team. 1/2*

Survivor Series Report w/ Joe Fowler

There’s nothing to say about this Survivor Series Report, as Fowler talks about the already advertised Survivor Series elimination matches and throws it back to McMahon & Heenan for RAW.

Main Event

Diesel vs. Dan Dubiel

This is Diesel’s first singles match on WWF RAW. Dubiel tries to surprise Diesel in the first minutes, but Diesel cuts him off immediately before hitting an awkward gutwrench powerbomb. Short clothesline by Diesel. He remains in control with shots to the back of Dubiel. Diesel with a backbreaker and a kneelift. The announcers mention Diesel has the best right hand in the WWF. A few moments later, Diesel delivers a Big Boot to Dubiel followed by a right hand for the easy win in 4:02.

Winner: Diesel

Rating: This was not pretty at all. Diesel was not ready to be in the ring regularly, and the WWF smartly kept him managing Shawn Michaels while he could improve on house shows. DUD

We see a video promoting Tatanka vs. Ludvig Borga on Superstars.

Next week on RAW: Mr. Perfect in action, Smoking Gunns vs. Well Dunn, an interview with The Foreign Fanatics (Yokozuna, Ludvig Borga & The Quebecers), Razor Ramon vs. Bastion Booger and Randy Savage will be live via telephone call.

END OF THE SHOW

Final thoughts: I can’t call this a bad episode, as it’s a short show. However, would you miss anything if you skipped this RAW? Absolutely not. This episode was used to promote Ludvig Borga vs. Tatanka on Superstars more than anything, and the best thing about it was the nice Marty Jannetty vs. The 1-2-3 Kid matchup. It was watchable yet skippable – not good, not bad… a low 5/10.