Wrestlemania IX - Caesars Palace, Las Vegas Nevada, April 4th 1993

Right out the gate, I need to warn you that historically this is known as a bad Wrestlemania. Will it improve on my memories? Let’s find out together

This PPV marks the WWF debut of Jim Ross, fresh from the NWA/WCW. He waits approximately 10 seconds before mentioning Oklahoma for the first time. He and Gorilla are both in togas, as promised in the build up to this event. The “opening ceremonies” are Caesar and Cleopatra coming to the ring on an elephant as JR rattles off a bunch of trivia about Cleo, and then brings out the rest of tonight’s commentary team - Macho Man Randy Savage and Bobby “The Brain” Heenan. Macho is on a sedan, carried to the ring and I love his gear tonight in purple, white and gold. Ooo yeah. Bobby comes out on a camel, facing the wrong way and loses all his dignity when his toga rides up. Funny stuff, and he and Macho argue over who was supposed to be on the sedan and who was supposed to be on the camel.

Randy busts out his catchphrase for the evening, “do the thing!” which he says three times during his opening monologue. 

WWF Intercontinental Championship

Shawn Michaels © (w/ Luna Vachon) vs. Tatanka (w/Sensational Sherri)

This match marks a couple more debuts after Jim Ross earlier. Shawn Michaels comes out to his same theme song, but now the version sung by him rather than Sherri. This is the version he used for the next 30+ years. He’s accompanied by Luna Vachon who is HBK’s new manager. Shawn was very unhappy with this pairing and wanted nothing to do with her and so he didn't interact with her at all during his entrance. The pairing didn’t last long.

Tatanka has Sensational Sherri in his corner too which is a surprise to everyone and a left over from previous booking - this was supposed to be the blow off to Shawn Michaels and Marty Jannetty’s feud but much like their planned match at Wrestlemania last year, it was cancelled because Party Marty got himself fired right after the Royal Rumble.

Tatanka has been undefeated for well over a year by this point, but that means lots of count outs and disqualifications otherwise they’d need to explain why he isn’t already the WWF Champion. 

They lock up and Tatanka wins the lock ups as he’s the stronger of the two. Michaels has the speed advantage and so that’s the early story of this match. I’ve watched three months of these 1993 shows now and within minutes it’s amazing how much better JR is at commentary than everyone else I’d had to listen to.

Michaels is working with an injured shoulder and Tatanka works on it with deep armdrags and sends Michaels spiraling off the apron with a chop to the chest. That gives us the first staredown between Sherri and Luna at ringside. 

Michaels uses a thumb to the eye to get some control and comes off the top with a messy sunset flip but Tatanka kicks out and after a couple of big chops goes back to the arm which he works on for a long time. It does come into play as when Michaels tries to fight back with a shoulder block his shoulder pain puts a stop to that. Tatanka comes off the top with a chop but when he goes for a second, Shawn catches him with a superkick (or crescent kick as it was known in 1993) but that’s not his finishing move yet. On the outside, Sherri and Luna keep each other at bay and Michaels comes off the apron with a diving clothesline to Tatanka which looked great, and he tries to keep the challenger out of the ring for a countout victory but gets distracted taunting Sherri so Tatanka re-enters the ring. Michaels keeps control with a long sleeper hold.

The pace picks up and both men throw bombs and get near falls - Tatanka blocks a top rope dive with an electric chair drop and starts to build momentum with very close near falls countering a crossbody into a powerslam and then hitting a crossbody of his own. The fans are pretty into this finishing stretch. 

Michaels gets frustrated and pulls the referee out of the ring, and then immediately walks into the Papoose to Go. Tatanka has the victory in hand but the referee waits until the last possible second to call for the bell, disqualifying Shawn Michaels for attacking him. (Howard Finkle messes up and says he won by count out) Tatanka wins the match, but not the championship. A bad ending to a good match.

Tatanka celebrates anyway, and Sherri smiles and claps until she’s attacked by Luna and powerslammed on the floor. She throws in some kicks too until Tatanka chases her off. Later, during the next match JR tells us that Luna attacked Sherri AGAIN backstage at the first aid station. 

Randy Savage “do the thing” count during this match: 4

Luna’s arrival in the company is an odd story. She was living in Canada and contacted the WWF trying to get a job for her husband David Heath - future WWF performer Gangrel - but the company took an interest in her instead. They wanted to hire Luna but were unable to track her down. It was 1993 so no internet or mobile phones and the WWF were forced to hire a private investigator who tracked her down working as a waitress in Florida, just so they could offer her a job! 

I mentioned at the Royal Rumble and a couple of times in the past couple of months that Vince McMahon had sidelined Macho Man because he believed he was now too old to main event. Ridiculous in hindsight but he wanted the WWF to be the company of youth (unless you’re Hulk Hogan of course). Macho offered to turn heel and feud with and lose to both Bret Hart and Shawn Michaels on this event, but also just in general. He was refused, and given the dearth of stars in the WWF at the time I’ll never understand why.

Before the next match, Mean Gene Okerlund interviews The Steiner Brothers, singing their praises and the praises of their college. This is their first Wrestlemania, and they say generic things like “we’re ready, the Headshrinkers better be ready too” I liked Mean Gene’s outfit though.

The Steiner Brothers (Rick and Scott Steiner) vs. The Headshrinkers (Samu and Fatu, w/Afa)

The Headshrinkers are already in the ring when we cut back to the ring from that interview. This was actually one of the very first matches announced for Wrestlemania. JR uses “slobberknocker” for the first time at the start of this match, which is something that became his trademark too. 

Afa threatens some fans in the front row as the teams take their positions and kick off after a weirdly long delay. 

This match is physical from the the word go, trading clotheslines and blows. Samu and Fatu isolate Scott and wail on him with headbutts as JR, who knows the Steiners from his WCW days, introduces multiple things that were never used previously in the WWF specifically calling clotheslines “steiner-lines” and Rick’s nickname “the dog faced gremlin”. 

Afa blasts Scott in the back with his stick as he’s running the ropes which allows the Headshrinkers to isolate and double team him in their corner of the ring. 

Samu misses a dive off the ropes allowing Scott to finally make the tag and Rick comes on fire with slams and suplexes and clotheslines. He counters another Headshrinker crossbody off the top into a powerslam for a very near fall. The Steiners are impressive enough that even heel commentator Heenan is full of compliments for them. The match breaks down and with only Scott and Samu in the ring he hits the Frankensteiner to pick up the win in a physical match.

Randy Savage “do the thing” count during this match: 2. 

Backstage, Mean Gene interviews Doink the Clown who has desecrated the statue of Julius Caesar with clown makeup and a wig! Gene recaps everything he’s done to Crush, specifically bludgeoning him with his false arm which was filled with lead. Crush’s main issue with Doink? He makes kids cry! I love Doink and he has a good laugh at the replay of him attacking Crush. 

Doink the Clown vs. Crush

Doink claimed, years later, that the original planned finish for this match involved brightly coloured tubes of goo coming out of his head from a secret compartment and blinding Crush. I’ve no idea how they’d have even achieved that but it’s safe to say that ISN’T how this match ends.

Doink has an umbrella as he walks to the ring and alternates between hysterical laughter and a sinister glare into the camera. So good. He sprays Crush with water from the umbrella so the big Hawaiian chases him around the ring and slams him on the outside and runs him into the ring post and the security barrier before throwing him into the ring to officially start the match with a big advantage. 

They actually totally repeat a sequence as Doink begs for mercy, Crush won’t give it to him, they go back to the outside to brawl some more and then back in the ring Doink begs for mercy again in the exact same place. I thought I was seeing double (remember I said that in a minute). 

Crush wails on Doink as he bumps around the ring and struggles to get any offence in. He’s not even going for pins, just trying to make Doink pay.

Doink gets control by hanging Crush up on the top rope and comes off the top with a sledge to the back of the head, followed by a very nice looking piledriver.

His next jump off the ropes backfires when Crush sticks his boot in Doink’s face. They go back and forth but for the third match in a row, someone dives off the ropes and its caught and turned into a powerslam by his opponent - Tatanka did it, Rick Steiner did it and now Crush has done it.

Doink tries to escape under the ring but he's pulled back in and drilled with a big gorilla press slam and goes for the Kona Crush. Doink flails and the referee gets knocked down. Doink goes back under the ring and is once again caught but that was just to set up his next trick - a second Doink comes out from under the ring!  He knocks out Crush with the same fake arm as last time, but how are there two Doinks? Heenan is hilarious claiming that its just an illusion! The two Doinks do the old mirror copying each other’s actions spot which I loved and then the second Doink leaves so the original can get the three count. Doink the Clown wins at Wrestlemania. Nothing match, but I loved the finish. Maybe I just love Doink. He hams it up, asking the camera “what happened?” with a big smile. 

Fans of trivia, the second Doink was played by Skinner. A second referee runs down and tries to show the original referee that there was a second Doink but when they check under the ring? He’s gone! How did Doink do it? 

Randy Savage “do the thing” count during this match: Only 1. Maybe someone got in his ear and told him to stop saying it. 

Up in the crowd, my boy Todd Pettengill tries to take a poll of the crowd about whether there were two Doinks or if it was an illusion. He speaks to two Japanese photographers who don’t speak English, but they do perk up when he mentions Yokozuna. “Yokozuna number one! Caesars Palace number one!” Indeed.

Bob Backlund vs. Razor Ramon

There’s no real story ahead of this one - it was thrown together as a “big name vs. big name” exhibition match. Backlund was the WWF Champion for five years but that was the pre-Wrestlemania era so this is his first ever Wrestlemania. Razor is cool, so the fans loudly chant for the heel over the straight laced babyface Backlund. 

Backlund is quicker and sends Razor flailing onto his back not once, not twice but thrice but Ramon is strong and takes over with a slam and a kick to the head. During this match there’s the first mention of two running storylines leading into tonight’s WWF title match - last night at the Hall of Fame dinner, Lex Lugar knocked out Bret Hart with a sneak attack. I’ll obviously talk about that more later.

Backlund out-wrestlers Razor and sends him scurrying with more grappling and then a deep atomic drop but out of no where, Ramon rolls up Backlund into a small package to pick up the victory in less than four minutes. This was Bob Backlund’s first ever televised pinfall loss, something that would have been good to mention but no one does. Bizarre.

Randy Savage “do the thing” count during this match: 0. I’m so disappointed.

Mean Gene interviews the WWF Tag Team Champions Money Inc. The Million Dollar Man looks amazing in his all white tear-away tuxedo. They remind us of Money Inc trying to rebreak Brutus’ surgically repaired face with their briefcase which led to the defection of their manager Jimmy Hart and the return of Brutus’ best friend Hulk Hogan to team up with him. Gene calls them the underdogs but Dibiase laughs at the notion - he’s sick of hearing them talk and makes a bunch of references to gambling, being in Las Vegas. This is the city of Money and the odds are in their favour tonight. 

WWF Tag Team Championships

Money Inc (Irwin R. Schyster and “Million Dollar Man” Ted Dibiase) © vs. The Mega-Maniacs (Hulk Hogan and Brutus “The Barber” Beefcake, w/Jimmy Hart)

Money Inc made reference to how “money can buy anything” and during their entrance, Bobby Heenan implies that they paid someone off to attack Hulk Hogan. Sure enough, when the Mega-Maniacs come out the Hulkster is sporting a big nasty black eye! The urban legend is that Macho Man, who famously never got on with Hogan behind the scenes, punched him the previous night after a few drinks but that’s been refuted since - he tripped and fell outside the gym.

When Hogan and Brutus get to the ring they beat up Dibiase and IRS and throw them out of the ring, all without Hogan’s music stopping and he finishes his entrance, testing his shirt and posing for the crowd. It’s weird because at this point, this is WCW Hogan - the longer hair and the massive muscle loss after all the steroid allegations make him look much healthier. 

When he removes his bandana we can see he has some stitches and bandages on his face too in addition to his black eye, it must have been quite the fall! Beefcake and IRS start the match for their teams. 

The champions isolate Beefer but make their first mistake with a club to the face which, thanks to his protective ask, hurts Dibiase’s hand instead. He tries to run Beefcake into the turnbuckle but thanks to his mask, he just no-sells everything and returns the favor before tagging in Hulk Hogan. The crowd goes wild and Hogan wrestles weirdly like a heel, throwing lots of short, closed fists and threatening the referee when he tells him to stop. Nothing wrong with changing up your style from time to time I guess. The Mega-Maniacs work this like a house show match and keep the fans at fever pitch - comedy back and forth punch spots and another heel move, an eye poke, from the Hulkster. Money Inc decide that they’ve had enough and take a walk, deciding to lose by countout so they can keep the title belts. The referee makes a judgment call and informs Money Inc that if they don’t come back to the ring they will lose the Tag Team titles by countout. Not really fair to change the rules like that but it’s at the referee’s discretion. 

Money Inc gets control over Hogan with some illegal double teams and choke him on the ropes, with the tag rope and then the Million Dollar Man grinds him down with a long, long Million Dollar Dream. While the referee is arguing with IRS over something - I think he wanted him to just end the match because Hogan was out - Brutus came in and locked a sleeper on Teddy and put him out too leaving both men not moving and crawling to their own corners for a tag. 

Beefcake comes in on fire and sends both champions flying with clotheslines but a sneaky shot to the lower back from IRS’s briefcase as he hits the ropes gives Money Inc control again. They work on tearing Beefcake’s mask off to weaken him and eventually manage it, leaving his surgically repaired face unprotected.

Brutus comes back with a double clothesline and makes the tag to Hogan who rocks both champions with punches and the referee is knocked down by an errant elbow. Hogan uses Beefcake’s mask to knock out both IRS and Dibiase! They both cover but there’s no referee to count so Jimmy Hart reverses his jacket to show referee’s stripes and gets in the ring, counting the three count! We get the odd sight of Hulk Hogan celebrating with one of the Tag Team Championship belts until a second referee comes out and rules that it doesn’t count - the Mega-Maniacs are disqualified for using the mask, so Money Inc retains the Tag Team Championships.

Randy Savage “do the thing” count: 0. I think this game might be over, sorry guys. 

Jimmy Hart throws the referee out of the ring and Hogan and Beefcake celebrate like they won anyway - Brutus and the fans encourage Hogan to do his strutting and cutting swagger and Hogan flexes and poses as the fans go nuts. They even get Money Inc’s briefcase and reveal that inside was a house brick, and a pile of cash! So that’s the end of Hogan, half way through the PPV. Or is it? This was Brutus “The Barber” Beefcake’s final televised WWF match. He remained with the company and continued working house shows throughout the summer before leaving at the end of the year. More on that at the King of the Ring PPV. There was one very funny spot as the fans were going nuts for Hogan to throw the cash into the crowd and the noise immediately dropped in volume when he dropped it all onto the mat instead! He did go around and hand it out after that of course.

In the crowd, Todd Pettengill speaks to someone who I think is famous? He also speaks to the CEO of Caesars Palace. I can’t quite place his accent but he plugs all the amazing events at Caesars Palace that YOU TO CAN BE APART OF, VISIT LAS VEGAS! But Wrestlemania is his favourite, of course. 

Elsewhere, Mr. Perfect is standing by with Mean Gene Okerlund. Mean Gene brings up Lex Lugar’s suspicious forearm. He’s been using that forearm smash as his finishing move for a while but only recently have the added the storyline element that it might be loaded in some way - Lex did have a metal plate in his arm, for real. Mr. Perfect trips over his words which is funny for a guy who’s name and gimmick is Perfection. They also mention the event which the commentators brought up during the previous match - at a charity event, Lex Lugar used his running forearm smash to knock out the WWF Champion Bret Hart in an unprovoked attack. 

Mr. Perfect vs. “The Narcissist” Lex Lugar

The Narcissist has some girls in skimpy gold bikinis (which is very revealing for 1993!) hold his mirrors for him to admire his own reflection. Its very windy in Las Vegas so hilariously the little firework spooters attached to each mirror are useless - the sparks just shoot to the side in the breeze. 

As Mr. Perfect makes his entrance, a couple of Lugar’s bikini girls seem quite into him and reach out to fondle his muscles. Because he’s a good guy and they came out with the heel he has to be all “eww, girls” about it which is a bit funny. 

Perfect wins the early exchange - lock up loading to them hitting the ropes and Perfect coming out on top with a dropkick, sending Lex to the outside to compose himself as the commentators debate what’s going on with Lex’s forearm.

Perfect takes down Lex with a shot to the knee and then focuses his assault on it with knee drops and a spinning toe hold. 

Lex withstands that and with a limp, sends Perfect to the outside and focuses his attack on the lower back, running him into the ring apron.

In the ring Lex keeps things slow but Perfect mounts a comeback with a sunset flip and a sleeper but Lugar quickly breaks that by backing Perfect into the corner. 

They trade punches and Perfect goes into a small package - the referee actually starts to count before the shoulders are down - but Lex kicks out. There was a little bit of a story with the working on Lex’s leg and then Perfect’s lower back but generally they’re just taking it in turns to do moves to each other. 

The finish comes out of nowhere as Lex uses the ropes to block Perfect’s backslide and turns it into one of his own. Perfect’s feet are on the ropes so that should stop the count but the referee didn’t see it and counted anyway. Lex wins, and then as Perfect argues with the referee he runs at Perfect and knocks him out cold with that stiff forearm to the back of the head. 

Given Lex’s physique this feels like a good point to bring up ICOPRO, which you’ll notice the logo for in some of my screenshots and see the Bret Hart commercial for on Raw. That was Vince McMahon’s owned and operated fitness supplement which was hyped and promoted constantly on WWF television for a few years. Bret Hart and others in the years since have called the stuff garbage - it tasted horrible and had no value for bodybuilding.

When Mr Perfect wakes up he chases after Lex, running backstage and sees him talking to Intercontinental Champion Shawn Michaels. Perfect attacks Lex but is in turn jumped by Michaels who beats up Perfect until referees restrain him. It’s heated back at ringside too as Macho and Bobby fight about whether Lex’s victory over Perfect was fair or not. 

The Undertaker (w/Paul Bearer) vs. Giant Gonzales (w/Harvey Whippleman)

Giant Gonzales’ spraypainted muscle suit doesn’t have as much fur on it and looks even worse. Bizarrely they’ve also spraypainted an arse on it so he looks like a giant, hairy dickless yeti. Undertaker on the other hand is towed to the ring on a funeral pyre complete with a vulture on a perch. He looks badass. This is Undertaker’s 3rd Wrestlemania match - he defeated Jimmy Snuka at 7 and Jake “The Snake” Roberts at 8.

Gonzales is enormous and stands about a foot taller than the deadman. 

It’ll be hard to recap this match fairly as the Giant is slow, clumsy and wrestles like he’s never been trained. He sells Undertaker’s punches like someone shot him with a taser. They grab each other around the throat and Undertaker has to stand on the middle rope to be at Gonzales’ height. 

Gonzales chokes Undertaker down onto one knee in an endless sleeper which ended up forming 60% of this match’s runtime. 

Undertaker starts to fight back so Harvey Whippleman hands Gonzales a rag which the commentators tell us smells strongly and is doused in chloroform. The referee calls for the bell and for the third time tonight, a match ends by disqualification. Undertaker is out cold, put out by the fumes. Referees and officials come to ringside to try and get Gonzales to go to the back and check on Undertaker as Randy Savage says “we have a problem here” no less than 1.2 million times in the space of five minutes.

Undertaker is dragged out of the ring and put onto a stretcher as Gonzales chokeslams a referee and continues to play up to the crowd. The crowd chants “Hogan” assuming that as the resident giant slayer, he’ll be the man to come to the rescue here. Undertaker is taken backstage but, moments later, returns and runs back to the ring. They played his gong sound effect when he woke up too - that was cool. Undertaker rocks him with clothesline and becomes the first man to knock the giant off his feet. Gonzales rolls out of the ring and leaves and Undertaker gets the last laugh tonight. 

Before the main event, just for fun here’s the Wrestlemania music video to get you all in the mood

Before the WWF Championship main event, after a recap of all of Yokozuna’s recent destruction, Mean Gene interviews - who else? - Hulk Hogan! He says that he just left Bret Hart’s locker room after wishing him luck, he also calls Bret a Hulkamaniac and says that he and the other Hulkamanics are in his corner too. He ends by issuing a challenge to either Bret Hart or “the Jap” depending on who wins this - the Hulkster wants the WWF Championship back. I mentioned that there were two last minute story additions to the main event - one of them being Lex Lugar knocking out Bret Hart with his lethal forearm earlier, and the other is that Bret Hart and Hulk Hogan are apparently close friends and always were. Never mind the fact that it’s never been mentioned before, that’s ALWAYS been the case alright? 

WWF Championship

Bret “Hitman” Hart © vs. Yokozuna (w/Mr. Fuji)

Bret Hart is obviously at a huge weight disadvantage but he’s also at a bit of an importance disadvantage - Yoko has been on Raw far more often that Bret has in the build up to this match and in truth, the moment Hogan returned all the promotion of this PPV shifted to his match rather than this one. 

Yoko is stoic in his corner, waiting for Hitman to finish his entrance and the windy conditions help Fuji fly his Japanese flag without even trying. 

Bret starts off fast with a running dropkick and a flurry of punches in the corner but the 500lbs challenger shoves him with ease across the ring. Bret is tough and grabs onto Yoko, throwing punches and trying to move around quickly but Yoko shoves him out of the ring and Bret has to take a breather already - he’s still selling the Banzai drop at the contract signing as well as Lex’s forearm.

From the outside, Bret ties Yokozuna’s leg up in the ropes, tripping him and then leaping up and over to pepper him with punches. He keeps the pressure up with a diving forearm and the referee has to help get Yoko’s leg free.

Yoko slows things down with a big thrust to the throat and then with slams and an enormous legdrop has Bret on the ropes. Bret fights back blocking a corner charge with his feet up and then in a cool move, jumps off the middle rope and onto Yoko’s back sort of riding him down to the mat. Zuna recovers quickly with a superkick! He wasn’t that flexible for his entire career, but he was only 26 years old at this PPV.

He locks in a deep nerve hold on Bret’s neck to get his breath back.

Bret avoids a corner charge and this time hits his diving bulldog properly, followed by a diving clothesline and then a running one which takes Yokozuna off his feet. He’s fighting desperately, throwing more punches. During a battle in the corner, Bret exposes one of the metal turnbuckles and runs Yoko’s head into it. He tries to lock in the Sharpshooter which he just barely manages!

Mr. Fuji takes something out of his pocket and throws a white powder into Bret’s face. He collapses in pain, holding his face and Yoko pins Bret to win the WWF Championship! 

Yoko gets no time to celebrate as Hulk Hogan runs to the ring to check on Bret’s well being and protest to the referee. In what might be the dumbest business decision a manager has ever made, Mr. Fuji issues a challenge to Hulk Hogan for a WWF Championship match right here, right now. Hogan kindly gets Bret out of the ring first but Bret then encourages Hogan to go for it. “Go get him Hulkster!” 

WWF Championship

Yokozuna © (w/Mr. Fuji) vs. Hulk Hogan

Yoko holds Hogan for Fuji to use the salt. Hogan ducks. Hogan drops the leg on Yokozuna and in 22 seconds, Hulk Hogan pins Yokozuna to become the WWF Champion for the fifth time. 

The PPV ends with Hulk Hogan celebrating with fireworks and the crowd going nuts for him. The match was so short, Bret is probably still laying on the entrance ramp holding his eyes.

Historically, this is one of the worst things Hogan ever did. He played his real life bestie Vince McMahon like a fiddle, convincing him that only HE could save the company as champion and all these new faces weren’t worth the effort. He robbed fans of his title chase and feud with Yoko because he was impatient and wanted to be back on top and, in the ultimate disrespect, is about to disappear again to film a movie. We won’t be seeing the new WWF Champion much on TV over the next few months but Bret Hart and Yokozuna were both pretty angry about this very, very last minute creative change. This moment has been discussed a lot over the years and I don’t have much to add to it.

Is this the worst Wrestlemania of all time? No, not even close. If you’re asking, Wrestlemania 4 is the worst, with competition from Wrestlemania 27. It’s definitely not a great show but it's an easy watch and there were some bright spots. The fans being so hot for everything always helps. 

Monday Night Raw - April 5th 1993

• The first ever “Raw after Mania” was, in classic 1993 style, filmed BEFORE Wrestlemania so I’m not expecting a ton of fall out from the event itself. You can tell it was filmed before Mania as Vince says that Macho was wearing “a Macho toga”, which he wasn’t. Vince speaks in glowing terms about how great Wrestlemania was without giving too many actual details. Later in the show they do discuss Hulk Hogan being the new WWF Champion and that Yokozuna and Mr. Fuji are contesting whether the second WWF title match should have counted. Macho thankfully gives some love to Bret Hart too and makes sure he’s not forgotten.

• The opening match is Virgil vs. Bam Bam Bigelow. Bigelow throws Virgil around and to my shock, the fans actually got quite behind the underdog. Bam Bam wins a surprisingly long match with a top rope headbutt.
• Next up, Jerry “The King” Lawler makes his in-ring debut on Raw. For anyone who read this website in the order I posted it starting with the Attitude era you’ll know I hate Jerry Lawler. I never enjoyed his sleazy commentary even as a kid, but I think he was far better suited as a heel wrestler. He cuts a promo on the fans in New York but because they won’t stop chanting “Burger King” he decides he’s refusing to wrestle and leaves! 

• Mean Gene interviews Yokozuna and Mr. Fuji from what looks like backstage at Wrestlemania and repeat what Vince and Macho told us earlier - they are protesting Hulk Hogan’s WWF title victory as their impromptu match shouldn’t have counted. He might have a point but HE was the one who issued the challenge! Idiot.

• The masked Kim Chee takes on Bob Backlund. Backlund suffered his first ever televised pinfall loss at Wrestlemania, but there’s no mention of that here. Backlund shows off his superior wrestling skills with a creative roll up for the victory.

• Returning from a commercial break, Damien Demento is already in the ring with some unknown in leopard print trunks. This match doesn’t matter (Demento wins) but is here so that Rob Bartlett can call in - he’s still in Las Vegas because he lost all his money gambling and buying shrimp cocktail and couldn’t make it to New York.
• There was a promotion for the replay of Wrestlemania on PPV later in the show and Vince and Macho have hammered home some on-going stories coming out of the event. We’ll find out if Hogan’s title win will stand “this weekend”, Lex Lugar knocked out Bret Hart earlier on in the day before the event, and Mr. Perfect got into a backstage brawl with Intercontinental Champion Shawn Michaels after his match. That’s the important bits. 
• Jerry Lawler came out again but because the fans were booing, he left a second time without wrestling.
• The Steiner Brothers face The Beverly Brothers. Macho and Vince talk about how the Steiners are next in line for a shot at Money Inc’s Tag Team Championships which is more than fair. This is a decent match but shorter than their battle at the Royal Rumble in January. Scott wins it for the Steiners with a Frankensteiner on Beau Beverely.
• Jerry Lawler comes out a third time but this time before he can leave, his opponent (mulleted unknown “Jimmy Powers”) attacks him from behind and bounces him around the ring as Lawler covers his ears and yells at the fans to stop chanting “Burger King” at him. He in fact spends the entire match arguing with the crowd and playing up to the chants, drawing this out like a panto villain. 

• He does periodically stop to yell abuse at Macho Man on commentary who he works with on WWF Superstars. King wins with a really nice looking piledriver and then goes over to gloat at Randy Savage. Vince McMahon interviews him so that he can call both Macho Man and the “scum in New York City” jealous of him. He is the greatest wrestler of all time and he dares Macho Man to get in the ring with him. Randy stands up and looks like he might be game for a fight but the show ends quickly with Vince plugging next week’s matches. 

Monday Night Raw - April 12th 1993

• Backstage right at the start of the show, WWF Tag Team Champions Money Inc pay Beau and Blake Beverly in exchange for inside information on the Steiner Brothers and how to beat them. The Beverlys have never actually beaten The Steiners so I’m not sure their advice is worth the money, Ted.

• This week’s Raw is not in the Manhattan Centre - it’s in the same building in upstate New York that Raw was last month. Rob Barlett is sadly back this week.
• Last week at the end of Raw, Vince promoted that Money Inc would be defending the Tag Team titles this week against the Bushwackers but instead, it’s IRS (with Red Dibiase) vs. Scott Steiner (with Rick). I’m not mad at the change, I have no interest in seeing the Bushwackers wrestle. After 12 minutes of back and forth action, Scott hits the double underhook powerbomb - the very much IRS asked about earlier - and Ted Dibiase breaks up the cover to cause a disqualification. The Steiners have no problem beating up both Tag Team Champions until the Beverly Brothers run down to help out - maybe that's what the money was for? - and it’s four on one until Scott avoids a shot from Blake which hits the Million Dollar Man instead. Scott and Rick escape and the two heel teams are left arguing in the ring. Considering Ted and IRS are coming off a Wrestlemania match with Hulk Hogan of all people, this feels like a big step down. IRS bails out of the ring and leaves his partner to face the music, two on one until he’s able to talk his way out of the ring too.

• After a commercial for the Wrestlemania 9 replay, Tatanka battles Germany’s Von Krus, who is a ridiculous looking human being. Everyone’s favourite malevolent clown Doink comes down to ringside, spraying water at the fans and the camera with a laugh and then just..leaves. Alright then. Tatanka wins this with the Papoose to Go. Howard Finkle even announces him as “still undefeated” after the match for good measure. 

• Sean Mooney presents the Wrestlemania Report and in between plugging the PPV replay of “the greatest Wrestlemania of all time” that same night, confirms that WWF President Jack Tunney has ruled that Hulk Hogan’s title victory is legal and counts. He also hits Doink’s “double trouble” victory over Crush, and Undertaker’s victory over Giant Gonzales, but the less said about that the better.

• Rob Bartlett interviews the newly debuted Luna Vachon. She was in Shawn Michaels’ corner but there’s no mention of that tonight - the pairing was one and done. Luna speaks with a gravely, horror movie villain voice and I think she’s pretty awesome. She calls out Sensational Sherri, which gets a Sherri chant. Luna growls that she’s more woman than Sherri and then the Sensational one comes out to confront her. They argue some more and it quickly turns into a brawl (Bartlett gets his shirt torn during the melee) and Sherri suplexes Luna on the floor. It’s a furious brawl with camera cables and fighting into the crowd. Luna actually strips Sherri to her underwear! They’re finally separated and coming back from commercial break, Macho Man is up and chatting to Sherri but Luna comes back and the fight starts all over again! They’re finally split up by officials with Luna being literally carried to the back.

• Papa Shango faces Scott Taylor, who is announced as Skip Taylor by Howard Finkle. That’s my boy Scotty 2 Hotty of course. He has a glorious long mullet here and his dropkicks have no effect. Shango wins with his shoulder breaker but I was distracted during this as a dishevelled Rob Bartlett came to ringside with torn clothes and a red mark on his face. He got caught up in the Luna and Sherri scuffle.
• An important moment in WWF history as Friar Ferguson makes his debut against Chris Duffy (who looks a bit like Biff from Back to the Future). The extremely overweight monk, with bare feet and a robe, has the match won with a splash on the mat but breaks his own pin. This gimmick didn’t last long as the Catholic Church, who have a strong presence in New York, strongly objected to this character. I’m not sure we’ll see much of him. The fans are so into this match that they chant “we want Bret”. Duffy goes for a sunset flip but it backfires when the good Friar sits on him for the easy victory.

• Raw ends with Vince conducting an interview with the WWF Tag Team Champions Money Inc. After earlier’s events they have a match next week with the Beverly Brothers (no confirmation on if its a title match or not) but before Ted can really discuss the match they’re attacked from behind by Beau and Blake and the show ends in chaos with the two heel tag teams brawling backstage.

Monday Night Raw - April 19th 1993

• Raw opens with the two teams in tonight’s Tag Team title match cutting promos on each other. There’s no important content but what is interesting is that both teams deliver their promos looking off to the side at the middle distance rather than to the camera. Nice to see them try different things.

• Razor Ramon takes on Virgil in the opening match. There’s no mention of where Raw is this week which makes me think it’s a bunch of random matches recorded from that weekend’s show spliced together. That’s confirmed later in the show as when showing the ring from another angle, Vince, Macho and Barlett are not at ringside. Virgil puts up a good fight but this is a showcase for Razor who wins with the Razor’s Edge powerbomb.

• Up next, Giant Gonzales in action against L.A.Gore, who we’ve seen before on these shows. Gonzales still looks terrible in his spray painted muscle suit but he does move a little bit quicker in this match than he did at Wrestlemania. Gonzales wins with a big chop.

• In a pre-recorded promo, Luna Vachon talks about her history with Sherri (which is rich and full of violence and evil, apparently) and continually calls herself a princess and a Goddess who will make Sherri worship her. She’s great, I love her. 

• Native American Tatanka takes on Art Thomas, who looks like he’s in great shape and has a glorious 1993 mullet but I’ve never seen him before or since so he must have been rotten. Unsurprisingly, this no-name jobber doesn’t end Tatanka’s undefeated streak. Vince continually calls Art “Mark” by mistake during this. 
• Ted Dibiase and Irwin R. Schyster takes on Beau and Blake Beverly. At the start of the show it seemed like this was a title match but the commentators confirm it’s a non-title match now. Make up your mind. If the Beverlys win they will be number one contender of course, and even though this is heel vs heel, the fans like chanting “Irwin” to annoy IRS so that makes the Beverlys the default favourites. After a long, somewhat tedious match Blake misses a clothesline on the Million Dollar Man and hits his own partner, getting then rolled up for a victory for the champions.
• In the ring, Vince McMahon interviews the former WWF Champion Bret “Hitman” Hart. Vince calls Bret “the people’s champion” which is a fair assessment. Bret talks about how people think he’s done, but he wasn’t done when he previously lost titles and he isn’t done this time. He says that he will come back and rise to the top again. He then turns his attention to Lex Lugar and after footage of The Narcissist knocking him out before Wrestlemania. Lex is taking credit for costing Bret the title. Vince mentions President Jack Tunney’s investigation into Lex’s forearm and the way it knocks everyone out and Bret alludes to that investigation being needed because that forearm contains a lot more than bone. Vince asks Bret what he has to do to get his WWF title back and he says he’s starting with Lex Lugar and whether it's Yokozuna or even the immortal Hulk Hogan, he is coming for the WWF Championship. He got some boos for mentioning Hogan! 

• In the main event, Bam Bam Bigelow takes on Phil Apollo. As Bam Bam dominates, Doink the Clown comes down to the ring for a closer look but much like last week, just turns and leaves. Bam Bam squashes him with his diving headbutt to get the easy victory. After the match, Bam Bam gives him another but before he can deliver a third, last week’s new face Friar Ferguson comes down to provide aid to the fallen Phil Apollo. 

• I didn’t mention Barlett much during this show as he didn’t really say anything - his jokes were all limited to pretending to be traumatised by Luna last week, and nasty jokes about not knowing who any of the wrestlers are the way a non-fan would. I mention him now because this is his final appearance and I’m glad to see the back of him. 

Monday Night Raw - April 26th 1993

• This week’s commentary duties are handled by Macho Man Randy Savage, Vince McMahon and Bobby “The Brain” Heenan. Thank God. They do acknowledge Bartlett’s absence and say he quit because he refused to work with Bobby Heenan - in reality, Vince just released him because it clearly wasn’t working out.

• Damien Demento takes on Mr. Perfect in the opener. Perfect picks up the win with his Perfect-plex and Vince mentions that Mr. Perfect will challenge Shawn Michaels for the Intercontinental title, but doesn’t say when or where that match is supposed to take place.
• Bobby Heenan says that he received a letter from a fan this week and he is here in the front row of Raw with his girlfriend tonight. He’s going to propose to her on Raw and The Brain says he’s going to ruin it and make sure she says no! How nasty.
• The Narcissist Lex Lugar takes on Crush. Before the match, with the help of X-rays, we learn that Jack Tunney’s investigation into Lugar’s forearm has discovered that he has a metal plate in his arm which he uses to knock his opponents out. It’s not technically illegal so for now, there’s nothing management can do about it. This is a slow big man vs. big man match with Crush popping the crowd with a big slam but Lugar slowing things down on the outside and controlling with a long, wear down bearhug in the middle of the ring. Crush mounts a comeback but gets distracted when he spots Doink the Clown up in the crowd. He dares Doink to come and fight him but Doink points - there’s a second Doink, elsewhere in the crowd! Crush gets so distracted that Lugar is able to knock him out from behind and he tumbles out of the ring, losing by count out to the Narcissist. 

• The King of the Ring PPV - the first of its kind - takes place on June 13th and the first qualifying matches take place later on in the week on WWF Superstars.

• Mr. Hughes - a hulking and utterly useless performer who popped in and out of the WWF for years - faces Jason Knight. Hughes wins with a sidewalk slam/chokeslam combo. 

• An important debut vignette for The Smoking Gunns tag team. Billy Gunn and Bart Gunn are on their way to the WWF. Obviously Billy went on to achieve great things and is, amazingly, still active over 30 years later. We’ll see a lot more of these lads in the near future. 

• Shawn Michaels is interviewed in the ring by Vince McMahon. Vince mentions Shawn’s title defence next week against Hacksaw Jim Duggan and that Mr. Perfect is breathing down his neck. Shawn doesn’t get a chance to say much of anything after insulting the New York crowd as they chant “Shawn is gay” relentlessly at him. Deeply uncool, 1993. Mr. Perfect comes out and attacks Shawn and the two brawl until referees split them up.

• There’s footage from this past weekend’s WWF Superstars when Bam Bam Bigelow interrupted an interview with Sensational Sherri. He was rough with her, about to beat her up until Tatanka made the save because he’s a gentleman. Later in the show, Tatanka then had a match scheduled but was attacked by Bam Bam before he could make his entrance. Tatanka was seemingly knocked unconscious by Bigelow who then used a pair of scissors to cut some of the red out of the Native American’s hair.

• Typhoon of the Natural Disasters (who weirdly have only appeared as single’s competitors since I started covering 1993) face the vaunted Von Krus. With his big thick limbs and big belly and long flowing mullet, Typhoon looks like a dart player. He wins this by sitting on his opponent. 
• In the main event spot, Bobby Heenan goes over to see the happy couple and in front of a national cable TV audience, Paul proposes to his girlfriend. Heenan works his comedy insulting-them gimmick as Vince frantically tries to throw a commercial break during it. The lady did say yes and the two of them embraced. Sadly, according to IMDB they ultimately didn’t get married. That’s a shame.