WWF RAW October 4 1993 Review (Battle Royal)

October 4, 1993 Taped show (on September 27, 1993) Location: New Haven, Connecticut, USA (New Haven Coliseum) Announced attendance: ca 5,500 TV rating: 2.9 (USA Network) [up 7.4% from the previous week’s 2.7 rating]

Randy Savage, Mr. Perfect, Razor Ramon, IRS & others compete in a huge 20-man battle royal to determine who will wrestle for the vacant Intercontinental Championship on next week’s RAW.

Here is the list of champions in WWF heading into this episode: (considering the air date)

• WWF Champion: Yokozuna [113th day of his 2nd reign] – previous champion: Hulk Hogan

• WWF Intercontinental Champion: vacated [for 7 days] – previous champion: Shawn Michaels

• WWF Tag Team Champions: The Quebecers (Jacques & Pierre) [21st day of their 1st reign] – previous champions: The Steiners (Rick & Scott Steiner)

Note: in title matches, the defending champions appear underlined

Enjoy the review!

Your hosts are Vince McMahon & Bobby Heenan

RAW’s intro plays to kick off the episode.

Tatanka, Adam Bomb, Razor Ramon, The Quebecers and Randy Savage make their entrances for the battle royal. Everyone else was already standing in the ring.

20 Man Battle Royal

Final Two Wrestle For The IC Title Next Week

The participants are: Randy Savage, IRS, Tatanka, Adam Bomb, Razor Ramon, Pierre, Jacques, Giant Gonzalez, Rick Martel, Jimmy Snuka, Owen Hart, Bob Backlund, Diesel, Mabel, MVP, Bam Bam Bigelow, Mr. Perfect, Bastion Booger, Marty Jannetty and 1-2-3 Kid

Once again, the final two men win this match and will face each other next week for the vacant Intercontinental Championship.

The bell rings and it’s a big melee to start. Everyone gangs up on Giant Gonzalez and he’s the first one eliminated. Bigelow and Savage go at it in the corner. Savage tries to eliminate Bastion Booger but IRS saves him for some reason. The ring is way too full for me to follow the action. Bigelow and IRS nearly eliminate Savage, who barely hangs on. The Kid nearly eliminates IRS. Diesel gets Mabel over the top rope and IRS helps Diesel put the big man out. IRS is gone next courtesy of Razor. Jacques Rougeau jumps Razor from behind and nearly puts him out, but Savage makes the save. I hate saves in battle royals. Bastion Booger throws The 1-2-3 Kid out. Diesel and Tatanka slug it out in the corner. Diesel takes it to Mr. Perfect next, who ducks a clothesline and backdrops Diesel over the top for the elimination. Diesel was booked well in this match, looking dominant until his inexperience allowed Perfect to capitalize. We take a break.

Commercial break

We’re back with Rick Martel eliminating Bob Backlund. Martel scores another elimination as he throws Jimmy Snuka out. Martel nearly eliminates Jannetty, but he finds a way to stay in it. Bigelow dumps Perfect. Shocked to see him go already. Jannetty is out next at the hands of Adam Bomb. Savage eliminates Bastion Booger and Razor clotheslines Bigelow out as we take another break.

Commercial break

We come back with Razor saving Savage from being eliminated. Owen Hart dropkicks MVP (Brawler) out. Owen is gone too at the hands of Jacques. At this point, the action stops and the remaining heels decide to team up against Razor & Savage. The Quebecers jump Razor while Bomb & Martel attack Savage. Jacques backdrops Pierre onto Razor’s body. Nice double-team move by The Quebecers there. Jacques & Martel with a double clothesline on Razor. Adam Bomb picks up Savage for a powerslam, but Savage escapes and dumps Bomb. Adam Bomb grabs Savage’s legs after being eliminated and that allows The Quebecers to eliminate Savage.

Final Four: Razor Ramon, Rick Martel & The Quebecers

Ramon is alone in the ring against three heels. They all get heat on Razor for a bit. Razor avoids a triple dropkick and gets some offense for a bit, but they end up cutting him off rather easily. Jacques & Martel hold Razor so Pierre can throw some bombs. Martel gets too cocky and Razor kicks him away, but The Quebecers keep him down with a double-team slam. Jacques sets up Razor for a Pierre clothesline, but Razor ducks and Jacques inadvertently eliminates his own partner. Pierre can’t believe it and Razor throws him out to set up next week’s title match at 19:21. Razor and Martel wanna go at it right away and have to be separated by a bunch of referees.

Winners: Razor Ramon & Rick Martel

• Rating: It took them a while to get going but this turned out to be a really fun battle royal. It was a bit messy at first and it took them a bit longer than needed to eliminate a few filler names, but it switched gears after the first commercial break. It was nice seeing Diesel by himself for the first time in the WWF, and he did look really good for the relatively short run he had. While it was a bit disappointing to see Perfect – who could’ve offered a lot more to this match – being thrown out so soon, the final wrestlers remaining did a great job. The final sequence was extremely entertaining, with Razor Ramon in particular looking like a million bucks. Good battle royal to open the show. ***1/4

The Heavenly Bodies (Jimmy Del Ray & Tom Prichard) (w/ Jim Cornette) vs. Mark Thomas & Scott Taylor

Prichard starts in control over Mark Thomas. Del Ray gets tagged in and Prichard slams him onto Thomas for two, with Del Ray breaking up the pin on purpose. Prichard gets back in, Thomas gets a small flurry of offense and Del Ray comes in off the blind tag with a springboard clothesline that nearly misses. Off to Scott Taylor, who gets hit with a super spinebuster off the top rope by Prichard. Suplex by Prichard followed by an enziguiri. Double suplex by The Heavenly Bodies. They follow it up with a clothesline/DDT combo on Taylor, a double superkick to Thomas and Jimmy Del Ray pins Taylor at 3:39.

Winners: The Heavenly Bodies

• Rating: Good little squash with The Heavenly Bodies showcasing great double-team moves as always. 1/2*

We see a recap of the newly turned face Doink the Clown throwing confetti at Bam Bam Bigelow & Luna Vachon on the last episode of Superstars.

Main Event

Doink the Clown vs. Cory Student

The now face Doink comes out to the ring giving away stuff to fans. Poor Bobby Heenan gets covered with popcorn this week! Doink outwrestles Student and stays on the mat for a while. Powerslam by Doink and he goes up for the buttdrop splash to finish Student at 1:58.

Winner: Doink the Clown

• Rating: Barely a match but it established Doink as a face. 1/4*

Bam Bam Bigelow comes down to ringside and gets some heat by destroying Doink’s wagon.

We take a look back at the final moments of tonight’s battle royal while the announcers promote next week’s title match to end the show.

END OF THE SHOW

Final thoughts: It was all about the battle royal this week, so I can’t say it didn’t deliver. The squashes were fine too, although I’m not looking forward to the Bigelow/Doink feud. The whole concept of Doink as a face is too goofy for me, personally. Overall, while it wasn’t a spectacular show, it did make me want to watch next week’s Intercontinental Championship match. Solid episode. 6/10

POINT SYSTEM

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That’s all from today’s post. Thank you all so much for reading. Don’t miss any of the upcoming WWF & WCW reviews here on the blog. See you next time!

Written by:

Tomás Cunha